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ISSUE 6
VOLUME 71
APRIL 5, 2024
Students spring into action for WooFest BY KHAYLEE ENNABI ASST. NEWS EDITOR
WooFest is back for its annual show. From captivating musical performances to jawdropping dance routines, the event on March 2O held inside the Fowler Events Center demonstrated the vibrant creativity and talent within the student body. One of the standout performances of the evening was a mesmerizing dance routine by T-Time. The dancers seamlessly danced across the stage, delivering a visually stunning performance. The precision displayed by the dancers left the audience captivated, earning them a roaring round of applause. In the weeks leading up to WooFest, excitement buzzed throughout the campus as students prepared for their moment in the spotlight. Singers rehearsed their vocal runs and perfected their pitch, while dancers finetuned their choreography and synchronized their movements. Dariya Fomichenko, junior communication studies major and RA, explained that much more occurred behind the scenes. “Preparation for WooFest takes months. As an RA on the Woo Fest committee, we started planning in November of 2023,” Fomichenko said. Woo Fest, the show we all love, takes time, with auditions, theme preparation, decor planning and more. Fomichenko provided insight
The group Lovely Eyes finishes off their routine with a pyramid formation at WooFest, held in the Fowler Events Center on March 20. into the planning process. “First voting on the theme and splitting it into subcommittees. Once the
second semester started, we had weekly committee meetings leading up to the event. It takes a while to
prepare for Woo Fest overall, and every team member is important for putting the event together,” Fomichenko said.
Musical talents were also on full display, with students showcasing their vocal prowess and instrumental skills.
Charissa Graves | Banner One particularly memorable performance was a rendition
SEE WOOFEST | PAGE 2
Robotics Team prepares for its first Worlds Competition BY ALEXZA BAHNMILLER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
One of CBU’s newest clubs, the competitive Robotics Team. is in the midst of its first year of competition. CBU’s website describes Robotics as a club that “encourages students to build teamwork, communication, and leadership skills while competing in an international robotics competition.”
Titus Rehard, sophomore computer science major and president of the club, helped found the club. “As soon as I came to CBU, I asked the dean if I could start a robotics team because I’ve done robotics [before]. I started when I was 9,” Rehard said. Once Rehard got approval, it was still a slow start to growing the club. However, two years
later, it is now in full motion. “At first we had nobody [ join],” Rehard said. “But then over the year it grew to 15 people. This year, we grew it to about 25 really solid people.” As described by Rehard, the club involves building robots that will be able to compete in the yearly game. This year, the game is similar to soccer. “We built two robots to play
Madison Sardana | Banner
The CBU Robotics Team members launch cubes into the goal to practice for the upcoming competition.
on the 12-by-12 foot field, and they compete against two other robots from an opposing team, so there are four robots in total playing at a time. There’s a 45-second period where the robots run with preprogrammed instructions, then we have a one-minute remotecontrolled driver period,” Rehard said. During this time, the robots perform different tasks, such as grabbing, pushing and dropping small balls into the soccer net. For these tasks, the teams are awarded points. “We’ve competed three times this year so far. We are currently ranked third in the state. We will find out soon if we make it to world competition and if we do, which I think we will, we will do our best. But we have just been really, really focused on getting to worlds alone,” Renhard said. Jason Asariah, freshman electrical and computer engineering major and vice president of the club, is also optimistic about the club’s future. “We’ve been getting better and better, which is really exciting to see,” Asariah said. “We’ve been able to make little improvements to our designs.
We’re really excited, we should be moving to worlds.” Anna Lawrukajtis, junior mechanical engineering major and a group leader on the team, attributes their success thus far to planning improvements. “Since we have more people involved this year, we can do more things and prepare more for the season. We started planning our strategy earlier and had more time overall,” Lawrukajtis said. “We started with the strategy and the robots we’ve been working on since the beginning of last semester,” Rehard added. Although the team was able to get ahead of the curve, it was not all smooth sailing. “There have been a lot of challenges, specifically with electronics,” Asariah said. “One of the things we were working on is a power system. We were just spending a lot of time working on this circuit to provide adequate power to a test board we were using. We were losing a good amount of current in one circuit so that we something difficult we worked through.” Lawrukajtis found the challenge to be shifting between this year and last.
“The game is different than last year so we have to redesign everything and rethink our strategy,” Lawrukajtis said. “People are leaving and coming.” Overall, the team members agreed that the challenges were worth it, though. “I love being able to integrate what I learned in the classroom into some hands-on experience. Like the physics you learn, you actually get to see how it looks like in the real world and not just do the calculations on the whiteboard,” Rehard said. Asariah thinks the team itself is a large part of the positive experience, too. “I’ve learned a lot about leadership and then a lot about robotics and engineering. There’s a huge community aspect to it. It has been a lot of fun,” Asariah said. “People around me are the best part,” Lawrukajtis added. “It’s a very nice environment, very friendly.” For the remainder of the semester, the Robotics team will be preparing for the world championship. Then, the team will finalize their robotic system so they are ready for early implementation of the robots next season.
NMS RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
EASTER FOOD ORIGINS
Natural and Mathematical Sciences students display the research they completed for their senior projects.
.Preview CBU’s spring production, ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ which opens April 5.
Looking at the Last Supper and Passover, food can be used as a way to celebrate Easter.
Business & Tech pg. 10
Arts & Entertainment, pg. 13
Faith & Lifestyle, pg. 6