December 17, 2004

Future engineers compete in local Robotics Tournament

By Matthew Adamski
Staff Writer

A Lego robot serves dinner for a blind person, another feeds pets for a paralyzed person. An even more sophisticated robot opens a gate for a person with a debilitating disease.

These were a just a few of the ideas unveiled at the San Jose Unified Robotics Tournament Saturday, Dec. 4.

The majority of the 64 teams competing in the tournament were from the San Jose Unified School District, which hosted the event. But two schools from the Evergreen School District (ESD) also got approval to enter the competition.

The RoboCubs and the Flaming Arrows represented Carolyn A. Clark Elementary and Robomaniacs represented Katherine R. Smith Elementary.

The San Jose Unified Robotics Tournament is a local qualifying competition for the state robotics tournament. Both competitions are part of the First Lego League.

The league was created by the Lego and First companies to provide students between the ages of 9 and 14 the opportunity to design, build and program robots using Lego Mindstorms technology. The technology allows students the opportunity to build a robot out of Lego bricks and add other elements including sensors, motors and gears.

This year, the tournament’s theme was to build and program robots that perform everyday tasks for people with disabilities. Before teams could build their robots, they did research on the needs of disabled individuals.

Evergreen teams
The Robomaniacs, coached by Ann Fleischer a teacher from K. R. Smith Elementary, most enjoyed working together building their robot. The team practiced two hours after school each week and spent two months building and programming the robot.

Their biggest challenge was working with the hardware because they had to make structural changes when something didn’t work.

Angelique Alanis (left) and Stephanie Calvo watch as the robot tries to put the CD in its holder.

“You build your hardware and then your programming comes in to make it work. But it doesn’t always work, and you have to tweak it and tweak it and tweak it,” says Fleisher, who first got ESD involved in the competition and encouraged teacher Bernadette Marcias to begin the program at Carolyn Clark when she transferred to the district’s newest school.

David Porter and William Haggerty, software engineers from Lockheed Martin, and John Degnan and Justin Lorenzo from Bellarmine College Preparatory High School robotics team advised the Robomaniacs team.

“It was great to see the excitement of the team grow as the competition approached,” said Porter, manager of advanced programs at Lockheed Martin.

“I feel this program helped inspire these kids to pursue a future study in the field of robotics. Although it has been a lot of work, I feel that it has been worthwhile. Not only do I feel the kids learned a lot, but I’ve learned a lot working with the kids,” says Degnan, a senior at Bellarmine.

“I see students learn new things every day, and I can imagine them applying their knowledge from this to future programs,” says Lorenzo, a sophomore at Bellarmine.

Marcias, coach of the Flaming Arrows team from Carolyn Clark, feels teachers are obligated to provide programs like First Lego League. “It is a venue to share their ideas and a way for them to learn besides reading books. Most students learn from hands-on activities,” says Marcias.

Since Carolyn Clark and K.R Smith are the only ESD schools to offer this program, Marcias encourages teachers from the 16 other schools in the district to develop their own programs.

Spencer Marsh from the Flaming Arrows thinks other schools should have this program as well. “It gives students a chance to think creatively and experiment and learn about mechanics and things that may be useful later,” he says.

A competition judge makes sure Spencer Marsh and Meghana Seshadri have their robot in place before attempting to complete a mission.

“It’s fun and I learn a lot about programming,” says Wilson Mai of the Robomaniacs.

Raja Kujebaca, member of the RoboCubs team from Carolyn Clark, enjoyed the building aspect of the project. “It was fun to see which designs could be used for certain tasks on hand and see how they worked,” says Kujebaca.

Fleischer says the program gives children a chance to practice the skills they will need to be successful engineers.

“This is engineering critical thinking. These are the operations these children have to know to work in the engineering world. They need to know how to work as a team. They have to learn through trial and error,” says Fleischer.

She also thinks children’s participation in engineering projects at an early age is a great way for them to gain the necessary skills and experience to be future engineers in Silicon Valley.

“Starting the children young and having them move up to the big-deal machines in high school is an excellent academic way for them to get there,” says Fleischer.

She says that the program is important for developing young talent. “This is giving these children the opportunity to know what it is to be an engineer. These are the kind of talents we want to build in our community. We also want to be able to keep that intellectual base here in the valley,” says Fleischer.

Although none of the Evergreen teams qualified for the state tournament, the students can apply what they have learned from the project to their future academic and engineering careers.

Parents and teachers interested in volunteering or entering their students in a robotics tournament can contact Pam Greteman by calling (408) 323-1702 or e-mailing her at pgreteman@sbcglobal.net.