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 Posted: Sat, Nov 14 2009, 6:36 pm EST Post subject: Robotics a passion for winning team |
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WEST WINDSOR: Robotics a passion for winning team
Thursday, November 12, 2009 4:59 PM EST
By John Saccenti, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR: They’ll begin work in January; a six-week marathon of blood, sweat and computer programming.
They’ll pull all-nighters and work through weekends using only a kit with some metal, electronics and a few game pieces.
But for members of the West Windsor-Plainsboro First Robotics Team No. 1923, The MidKnight Inventors, it’s all part of the job.
The students, who attend High School North and High School South, begin their season in January with a flourish, brainstorming, designing, building and programming a robot, and spend the rest of it competing with and against other teams from throughout the world.
”The build season is intense. We stay after school until 8 and on weekends work from 8 am. to 3 p.m., said High School North junior Shivang Patel, a member of the robotics team for three years.
This year’s robot was built in a team member’s garage and is transported in a pickup truck owned by former member and team mentor Katie Stevens, a freshman at Rutgers University.
”I’m actually a farm girl. I have 19 horses,” she said about what could be considered an unlikely love affair with the robotics team.
Ms. Stevens is one of the team’s founding members, joining four years ago at the request of her friend, Libby Kamen, who now attends Clarkson University in New York.”
”She called me all excited. She said it was all boys, and she needed someone else to join,” she said. “At my first competition, I fell in love. I like working with others and get to meet interesting people. After that first meet, I knew I could do it.”
What began four years ago for Ms. Stevens continues today. She’s not only a member of the Rutgers University team, but acts as a mentor to the WW-P team.
Oct. 31, the Inventors won the Brunswick Eruption 8, competing against 32 teams from New Jersey, Maryland and Canada. Along with their partners, Overdrive FRC from Bridgewater and Revolution Robotics from Sparta, the team was named champions.
Also this year, the team won the First NJ Regional Competition in January with the best scoring robot at the competition and receiving the Judges Award for “excellence on a low budget.” The team also competed at the First Philadelphia Regional where they placed in the quarterfinals and won another Judges’ award.
As a regional winner, the team qualified to compete in the First World Championship event in Atlanta, where nearly 30,000 students from around the world gathered to compete.
The competitions are run by First For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, in Manchester, N.H., which offers robotics programs for students in kindergarten through high school. Shivang has been taking part in these programs for years, cutting his teeth in the First Lego League, open in students in fourth through eighth grade.
”Robotics is pretty much what I do,” he said. “When I was in fourth or fifth grade, a friend of my dad was building robots for third world countries. I learned to build them from him.”
Shivang’s skills haven’t been lost ton his teammates, who are more than a little impressed.
”He’s the main programmer. When he came in, we were blown out of the water with what he could do,” Ms. Stevens said.
For members, being part of the Robotics Team means more than just programming and building. It means working together, making friends and having a good time.
”The more experienced teams always help with rookie teams. It’s very collaborative,” said teacher advisor Marcia Smith Fleres.
If you want to get involved in the computer club, but are afraid your tech skills may not be up to snuff, have no fear. There are plenty of other ways to get involved.
”If you don’t build robots, there is still a lot to do,” Shivang said. “There is 3-m Modeling, scouting (other teams), creating a business plan and fundraising.”
That last one, fundraising, is one area the team always needs help with. The team has received help from the West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation Inc. and is sponsored by Integra, Bristol Myers-Squibb and other companies.
http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/11/12/the_princeton_packet/news/doc4afc8438c56d7643194669.txt |
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