Saint Stephen's student breaks Guinness record

BRADENTON -- Zack Gromko's robot can solve a Rubik's Cube by the time you finish reading this sentence.

Gromko, a 17-year-old senior at Saint Stephen's Episcopal School, most likely broke a Guinness World Record on Thursday afternoon, with his robot solving the six-sided puzzle in 2.4 seconds, smashing the March 2014 record of 3.3 seconds.

"I'm pretty excited," Gromko said surrounded by friends and family in the gymnasium of Saint Stephen's.

He won't find out until early next week whether record officials will accept his attempt. A Guinness World Record official was not on hand Thursday, but Gromko and school officials followed all the guidelines set out by the record keepers, including having multiple witnesses, separate timers, a certain person designed to scramble the Rubik's Cube following a pattern sent to the school by Guinness and video footage of both the setup and the event itself.

After showing off his robot's speed at a slow pace, so that those packed into the gym could see it in action, Gromko made three separate attempts at the record.

His first fast attempt wasn't quite fast enough, clocking in at 3.52 seconds and 3.69 seconds. On his second record-breaking attempt, timers captured the attempt at 2.41 seconds and 2.38 seconds. On the third attempt, Gromko pushed the robot a little too fast, and the motors came out of alignment before the cube was completed.

But the second attempt is the one that counts.

"History has been made," said Jan Pullen, head of school at Saint Stephen's.

"I can breathe again," said Zack's mother, Melissa Gromko, as she wiped away tears.

Gromko was first introduced to the Rubik's Cube on a school bus, in sixth grade, by Kyle Koughan, who is also now a senior. Over the weekend, he taught himself how to solve it, with his first attempts clocking in around two minutes. When he and his friend would show off their Rubik's Cube-solving skills at schools, Koughan -- who can solve a Rubik's Cube now in less than 10 seconds -- would draw a bigger crowd of spectators, because he was faster. That got to Gromko.

"I thought, 'I really need to get quicker,'" Gromko said.

His personal record for solving a Rubik's cube is 17 seconds, he said.

"I've always been really competitive when it comes to puzzle solving," Gromko said.

Around the same time he started getting involved with Rubik's Cube, he was introduced to programming and coding on computers.

When he reached his 17-second record solving the cube by hand, he began to design a program that could solve the Rubik's Cube faster.

His first computer program would use the computer's webcam to look at the six sides of the cube, then would write the steps necessary to solve it.

He stumbled on the YouTube video of the Guinness World Record for a robot solving a Rubik's cube. That robot had four arms hooked into four sides of the cube, and used one camera to analyze how the cube was scrambled so the computer could write the steps to fix it and then set the arms into motion.

And while Gromko was impressed, he said he immediately knew how he could improve upon that robot.

"I knew I could simplify it and at the same time, improve it," he said.

Building the robot

Gromko uses two cameras, which view the cube on an angle so each camera sees three different sides, and the robot has an arm that attaches to the middle square on each side of the cube.

In less than an instant, the cameras analyze the cube and the computer solves it. The most time-consuming part of the process, Gromko said, is running the motors.

The hardest part of building the robot, Gromko said, was figuring out how to make the cameras work together simultaneously. His first attempt didn't work out so well.

"The pieces would fly all over the room," Gromko said.

Once he figured out the cameras, the trick was running the motors fast. Really fast. Gromko said the motors cost about $15 each, but Gromko said he runs them past the point they're supposed to function, but also monitors the systems to make sure they don't break.

The first time the robot successfully solved the Rubik's Cube? That was about 2 seconds, Gromko said, already faster than the current record.

After Thursday's attempt, Gromko expects to hear back from Guinness officials in three days.

While he waits, Gromko is planning for his future. His top three college choices are California Institute of Technology, Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He's hoping to become a QuestBridge scholar. QuestBridge is a nonprofit that helps link high-achieving low-income students with scholarships.

Gromko and his mother, a court reporter in Manatee County, should hear back from QuestBridge by Oct. 21. If he's accepted, QuestBridge will send his application information to the three schools, which should let Gromko know whether he was accepted in December.

Fittingly, Gromko wants to study computer engineering, with a possible minor in physics.

Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached by 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 11:55 PM with the headline "Saint Stephen's student breaks Guinness record ."