Students from around the world witnessed the unveiling of this year’s FIRST Robotics challenge on Saturday, Jan. 9. The FIRST Robotics club from Shenendehowa was among the five local teams that shared this global experience and it’s already hard at work brainstorming what will make their robot the best at navigating this year’s game, which is similar to soccer.
Rose Barra, faculty advisor and teacher at Acadia Middle School, said the program is organized to inspire kids from all over the world to get an experience where they’re faced with not having enough money or time to build a robot that will best play a game. After the unveiling, teams have six weeks to create and perfect a robot. A large group of engineers from businesses in the community, like GE, volunteer their time to work with students. Their expertise makes the experience all the more valuable and lets the kids really learn at a deeper level, said Barra.
Barra said games are designed so groups of robots work together as an alliance, not one on one, which fosters cooperation and strategizing between schools facing each other. Once the game is unveiled, the club starts to work on understanding the rules, thinking of strategy and about how the robot will look to best succeed in the game.
It’s a lot of brainstorming and listening to each other’s ideas. That’s the part kids love; being as creative as possible without someone telling them they’re wrong, said Barra.
Brainstorming and strategy is at the core of the challenge and Ken Angeliu likes to be right in the middle of it. The junior has been in the club for three years and helps with design and strategy.
`I use Autodesk Inventor, which is a 3-D modeling program. We use that to prototype a robot and build it on the computer first so we’re able to find any flaws. We make dimensioning sheets for the engineers to actually machine the parts, it’s basically for planning purposes to make sure everything works and fits together,` said Angeliu, who said he had no prior knowledge of the program and learned to use it from the engineer mentors.
Being on the team for three years gave him the experience needed to help out in more ways than one.
`Every year when FIRST gives us a new type of game, a strategy team is dedicated to finding the best way to play that game and take full advantage of all the nuances,` said Angeliu. `This time the game has a lot of different components and trade offs we have to make. We could either have a short robot going through a tunnel or have taller robot. I don’t think there will be a problem once we figure out a strategy and it won’t be difficult to make the parts and mechanisms needed to play the game.`
Shaina Runyon is also a junior and has participated in all aspects of robot design. Originally part of the spirit team in charge of promotion and generating excitement and interest, Runyon would also offer assistance wherever mentors or students needed it, from stripping duct tape to punching holes in fabric. This year, she took an interest in the programming side of it and said she is looking forward to having a role there.
`First you have to have basic understanding of programming, which I didn’t have. We went over it before the season started and it’s not difficult to understand once it’s explained. It’s like another language; it takes time to properly understand everything about it,` said Runyon. `The robot needs programming to run so we have to make all the codes to make it actually work. We want to make an autonomous robot where it can run on its own code.`
Runyon said she is excited that the game is similar to soccer because she is on the soccer team and thinks she can parlay her skills on the field to the field of technology.
`When we found out the game I was sitting with a group that was like 95 percent soccer team. we were all like, ‘Yeah, we can do this!’` said Runyon. `I was talking to my friend about how familiar it’ll be this year and how we can take life experiences. Not just kicking the ball but pressure, the effort you have to put into kicking in different directions; we understand all that and can incorporate it into the robot we’re building.`
Barra said she loves giving students this type of opportunity to push their limits and see their ideas and efforts incorporated into a project that is something bigger. She’s been helping out for five years.
`I think it’s that thrill of competition that just brings out the best in them,` said Barra. `It’s so different from a classroom experience. Kids can learn skills they can carry with them for a lifetime. I love how excited they get.`
This competitive edge is part of what Angeliu enjoys most about being on the robotics team but didn’t know this would be the case when he decided to join.
`I mostly joined because I had friends who did it and once I got into it I really liked it,` said Angeliu. `It’s interesting to see what we can achieve in six weeks. I enjoy the challenge of building a sophisticated piece of machinery in that time span. The competition is very exciting with a lot of people cheering and enthusiasm. It’s both fun and educational.`
Runyon joined to feed her social butterfly persona but ended up finding something that has given her much more than an increased circle of friends.
`I’m a social person so this really fits in for me. There’s so many different types of people that join robotics club, it’s not just nerds and geeks, there are actually popular people on there too. Everyone’s really intelligent and its awe-inspiring all the different things people can do that you don’t even realize,` said Runyon. `I also had never really been out of the state or the general area before but now I’ve been able to travel all over for competitions.`
The team must have its robot perfected and submitted by Feb. 23. After that it will participate in several competitions throughout the season, which officially starts in March and culminates in mid-April with a national competition in Atlanta. There are about 72 students on the robotics team in grades nine to 12.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of the Jan. 13 print version of the Saratoga Spotlight.
“