Out to build a better robot
01/10/2007
Out to build a better robot
TC students take part in state-wide robotics contest
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Saturday morning, area technology-savvy high school students got their marching orders for the next six weeks.
Students in the Career Tech Center's Manufacturing Technology Academy and their counterparts in the SCI-MA-TECH program tuned into a simulcast laying out the rules for the FIRST Robotics Competition, a national competition promoting real world engineering, science, math and technology for high school students.
Each team will build and program a robot no larger than five feet on a side that will complete tasks listed in the simulcast. They will enter their results in the Great Lakes Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, scheduled for March 8-11 in Ypsilanti.
Students in the SCI-MA-TECH program and some of their mentors gathered at Central High School Saturday morning to watch the simulcast while a dozen students from the Manufacturing Technology Academy traveled to Grand Rapids to view it at Grand Valley State University.
"The ride home was a blast because the ideas were flying, it was really cool, said Tim Wheatley, an instructor in the academy. "After the big session they broke up into breakout sessions and we did one: four of our students put together a PowerPoint presentation.
The two local teams competed together last year as one rookie team, sharing a rookie $6,000 grant from NASA. This year, however, each program chose to take a stab at the prestigious event, which is a big deal in the state.
"In Michigan, it's very popular, the state has the second most teams other than California, said John Failor, director of the SCI-MA-TECH program, which includes sophomores, juniors and seniors. "It gives kids a great experience and there's a lot of different jobs kids are able to do.
Funding for the SCI-MA-TECH team comes from grants from the State of Michigan as well as from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, RJG, Inc. and the Mende and Jessup families. Sources for the Manufacturing Technology Team funding include the Chase Bank as a main sponsor as well as grants from the Michigan Department of Education, the Career Tech Center, Rotary, the MTA Guidance Board and a private anonymous donor.
One of the many student teams attacking the project from each program including design, building, programming and strategy is funding. While each entrant, after paying a $6,000 fee to participate, is given a kit of basic components they may use, anything extra has to come out of their pockets.
Wheatley noted that students from the Traverse City-based teams go head-to-head with teams that have much deeper pockets. Budgets from other schools downstate, for example, are augmented by funds from automobile manufacturers encouraging the next generation of engineers. Many times, too, adult mentors take a lead role in the design and building process, an approach Wheatley said the local teams reject.
"At first I shied away from mentors because we wanted ours to be 100-percent student built, he noted. "We know we're going to be competing against adult-designed and adult-built robots, so if we end up [placing in the competition] about half way or not at the end, we're doing great. Last year we were half way.
Charles Venditto, a junior in the SCI-MA-TECH program who participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition last year, agreed that many teams lean heavily on their adult mentors.
"I was very, very, very surprised to see that all the other teams were not student run, they had engineers from companies like GM, he noted.
Students in the SCI-MA-TECH program and their mentors dove right into a brainstorming process Saturday after the simulcast. Breaking into groups, they wrestled with design approaches, strategies of whether to build an offensive robot or a defensive robot and weight considerations versus power.
"We're hoping to do a scrimmage with some of the other teams beforehand, noted Failor, including other northern Michigan teams such as at the Manufacturing Technology Academy as well as teams from Frankfort, Onekema and Johannesburg.