HillsNews Autumn Newsletter
Robocon
December 2017
Farbod’s World Première
Hills Road Sixth Form College has launched Cambridge’s first ever robotics competition for local schools sponsored by Cheffins. Teams of young people from the region’s schools were invited to enter this innovative competition, which was launched at an event on 25th November at Hills Road Sixth Form College. Teams will consist of students from Years 11, 12 or 13. The competition is being supported by some of the world’s largest tech companies, including CMR (Cambridge Medical Robotics) and ARM Ltd. Hills Road student Josh Holland, who is helping to organise the competition, said: “We are excited to have the opportunity to launch this competition to local Year 11 pupils and sixth form students. It is a wonderful opportunity for them to learn about robot design and programming or to Farbod rehearsing his Piano Concerto No. 1 in F Minor with Symphony Orchestra at West Road Concert Hall showcase their existing robotic engineering skills, as well as for us all to demonstrate our that I enjoyed orchestrating these sections This year’s autumn concert included technical abilities.” more than I originally anticipated, using student and soloist Farbod Salamat-Zadeh advice from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of performing the world premi ère of Orchestration and observations from other his Piano Concerto No. 1 in F Minor! orchestral scores.” Farbod is studying A level Computer Something Farbod found more Science, Double Maths and Physics at Hills challenging was deciding on the structure of Road. After playing piano for about a decade, the movement and ensuring that it sounded he always aspired to write a piano concerto. unified. He said, “I decided to compose “I liked the idea of reinstating the first movement as part of my Extended short motifs (such as the first three notes Project qualification which I started in January of my main melody) throughout the whole 2017 and completed at the beginning of movement. Similarly, the end of the piece September.” Testing the ‘Blackjack’ power distribution boards features a series of runs on the piano with “My piece is written in a romanticwoodwind insrument section, echoing a lot of era style that incorporates many of the the musical ideas presented earlier.” stylistic elements found in concertos of this “Composing my concerto and time, for example its bold opening with the rehearsing it with the Hills Road Symphony piano in double octaves being suggestive of Orchestra has been a very enjoyable the opening of Grieg’s concerto; and piano experience.” figurations throughout the piece inspired The Symphony Orchestra also by composers including Chopin, Liszt, and played movements from Shostakovich’s Fifth Rachmaninoff.” Symphony. “To contrast the technically difficult The Wind and Jazz Orchestras solo passages, I really wanted to include performed a varied repertoire, and the beautiful and rich melodies.” Showing competitors how to test the equipment combined forces of College Choir and “Personally, my favourite moment The rules of the competition were Orchestra presented movements from Gloria is near the ending where the main melody released at the launch event and teams now by Karl Jenkins. returns in the whole orchestra and piano have five months to build a robot before the together for a grand romantic climax. I found final two-day competition in April 2018. Teams were provided with the electronics needed to build a robot, but the mechanical design and how to solve the problems is up to them. On the final day of the competition, the teams will have to demonstrate the skills of the robot within a bespoke-built arena, provided by fit-out and design company, COEL. Teams will also be provided with additional advice and mentoring through online forums and regular weekend meetings. The College Choir and Orchestra rehearsing before the concert at West Road