December 16, 2005

Local robotics competition all the buzz

By Michelle Hecht
Staff Writer

When little girls dressed as bumble bees explore a replica ocean using a robot, a memorable experience is guaranteed.

Stephanie Calvo readies the Bumblebots’ robot while team members Alejandra Lopez, Jennifer Ly, Liberty Tang and Justina Tran watch.

Known as the Bumblebots, this group of nine girls from K.R. Smith Elementary School battled it out against 50 other teams, including two fellow Evergreen teams: the Robomaniacs, also from K.R. Smith, and the Robo Surfers from Carolyn Clark Elementary School.

They were among 250 San Jose elementary and middle school students competing in the San Jose Unified School District’s FIRST LEGO League Regional Robotics Tournament on Dec. 3 at Gunderson High School.

This is the fifth year of competition for the district, which always extends an invitation to Evergreen schools to participate. “It is one of the bigger tournaments in the country,” said Jason Morrella, Regional Director for FIRST.

Based in New Hampshire, FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, began robotics competitions for high school students in 1989. In 1998, FIRST founder Dean Kamen, renowned entrepreneur and inventor of the Segway Human Transporter, teamed up with LEGO to involve younger students in their own tournaments. This formed the FIRST LEGO League, an international organization.

Independent of the school curriculum, student teams build and program robots under the guidance of teachers, parents and other volunteers. These teams then go on to compete in regional, state, national and international tournaments.

To construct the robot, each team buys a LEGO Mindstorm kit for $260. “Teachers can guide them, but students do all the programming and designing,” said Mary Ann Cave, assistant coach for the Robo Surfers and a teacher at Carolyn Clark. This was the team’s first year at the competition, but second for the school with teacher Bernadette Marcias as the head coach both years.

An extra $150 covers registration, along with access to an online community and a coach’s handbook. For $50 more, teams have the option of buying their own field setup, a roll-out mat and LEGO pieces for practice.

“Our school was able to use some funds to pay for the project,” said Cave, who added that many items were also donated by parents from last year.

Often, these costs come out of the teacher’s own pocket, but corporations also donate funds. Such was the case with the Bumblebots and the Robomaniacs, who were financed by GE Volunteers. According to Ann Fleischer, leader of both teams and a teacher at K.R. Smith, this came to about $1,000.

Her teams also relied on the help of volunteers for more than financial support. David Porter, Advanced Programs Manager at Lockheed Martin, volunteered to be their robot coach, as part of the company’s K-12 outreach program, “To build a robot and know that you can is good for the boys and girls,” he said.

Fleischer also acquired the help of several high school student volunteers, including Justin Lorenzo, a senior at Bellarmine College Preparatory High School. In a FIRST robotics high school team himself, he said its members try to get the children associated with technology and later get them on the bigger robotic teams in high school.

More than robots
Each September, FIRST LEGO League presents a theme to work around, this year’s being Ocean Odyssey. In the past, themes have included Mission Mars and City Sights, in which students worked on city planning and designing.

Robo Surfers Jonathan Purcel and Michelle La ready their robot for the course.

A team has to build and program its robot to complete several tasks, or missions, associated with the theme. This all takes place on tabletop courses that simulate a particular environment.

This year, the environment was the ocean, where a blue mat represented the water and LEGO pieces constructed the actual course the robot advanced through to complete missions. There were nine Ocean Odyssey missions, including the deployment of a submarine, releasing a dolphin and cleaning up a cargo shipping accident.

To increase their knowledge of the ocean, students were also required to do a research project in the eight weeks before competition. According to Pam Greteman, the tournament’s director, it was an open-ended project wherein students could choose any subject. The day of the robotics competition, teams presented their findings to judges during private interviews. Students could be creative with their report using skits, songs and presentation boards.

The Robo Surfers researched endangered cod in the Atlantic and presented solutions to save them. “Because our school promotes the use of technology, the students created a clay animation movie reenacting the catching of cod and showed it on a DVD,” said Cave.

The issue of global warming garnered the attention of the Robomaniacs. The project concluded that the promotion of solar energy would lead to less ocean pollution. “We looked into solar panels on roofs of houses and on cars,” said nine-year-old team member Adam Romayor.

Romayor’s sister Rianna, 10, also competed in the tournament as a Bumblebot. Her team researched coral reefs and proposed cleaning the beach of litter and cigarettes. They formed the slogan, “Bumblebots against cigarette butts,” said Rianna. “I learned a lot of new things, like how fishermen make artificial reefs,” said Angelique Alanis, 11, a fellow Bumblebot.

The excitement of competition
During the day-long tournament, the teams competed against one another for three rounds, each lasting two and a half minutes per team. As each team’s time came to compete, they paraded into the gym. Some teams took the opportunity to dress in costume. At one point, a team of pirates entered.

When asked about the Bumblebot’s bee costumes, which they made themselves, Rianna Romayor said they were nice, “but some fuzz got in my mouth.” With these outfits and team names like JAWS, Pier Pressure and Red Beard’s Crew, the competition had a lighthearted side.

Robo Surfer Jerik Straetker (on computer) improves their robot’s programming using special software, while Scottie Wan talks to other teammates. Photos by Michelle Hecht

Music accompanied the teams as an announcer bellowed their names over a loud speaker in a boxing match fashion. But according to Mike Ross, parent of one of the students, they were just some of the distractions the teams had to work against.

Video cameras hooked up to two giant projection screens got in close to the action, but students still did not seem to be disrupted. “It’s a high energy atmosphere and they have to act well and lively under pressure,” said Ross.

Judges circled the tables, looking for how well a team accomplished the missions. The all-volunteer judges, some engineers from IBM and Cisco, also looked for team spirit. Updated scores flashed on the screens as trophies in the shape of an ocean wave sat nearby. An awards ceremony followed a final play-off with the top teams.

The Robo Surfers, Bumblebots and Robomaniacs did not win in the awards sense, but they came away with a better understanding of technology, science and teamwork. “This event is to No. 1, build team spirit. No. 2, teach kids about the environment. No. 3, use practical and cognitive skills,” said Fleischer.

It can also be applied to possible careers in the field, as is the case for 10-year-old Robo Surfer Scottie Wan, who “wants to be a scientist of some kind someday.”

For more information about FIRST and the FIRST LEGO League, visit www.usfirst.org and www.firstlegoleague.org.