Fox Chapel Area’s Grandizio earns BotsIQ scholarship for robotics skills
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Fox Chapel Area senior Thomas Grandizio said he’d never seen his mom so exicted as she was when he got a call from officials at California University of Pennsylvania.
Grandizio earned the 2019 BotsIQ Scholarship, renewable for up to a total of $20,000 over four years at the college.
The teen plans to major in mechatronics engineering technology.
“I’m really excited and grateful,” he said. “This would not be possible without Mr. (Ken) Grimm, my robotics teacher and coach. He always makes me work hard and taught me techniques for solving problems.”
Grandizio credited Grimm with urging him to apply for the scholarship and staying persistent until it was completed.
Grandizio said he plans to continue to build battle bots on the university’s BotsIQ team.
In May 2018, he was part of a high school robotics students team “Dilly Dilly,” which won the King of the Ring rumble at the eighth annual Combat Bots competition.
Michel Conklin, executive director of Southwestern Pennsylvania BotsIQ, will be on hand to give Grandizio the award during the high school’s senior awards ceremony on May 28.