Archive: Around Town

The Lansing Bobcats Robotics Team was part of a three-team coalition that received three of the top ten scores at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) New York Excelsior Corning Excelsior Region meet January 7th.  This year the Lansing team made it to the regional (state) competition for the fourth time out of the five years the team has existed.  But this year's alliance win was the farthest the team has made it in league competition.  Juniors on the team hope to do even better next year.

"We usually end up in January or February" says team Secretary Brandon Rosenberg. "We haven't gone beyond States.  We made it to States every year except one, the second year.  There are multiple levels beyond: super-regionals and world.  25 countries have FIRST in them, and they all come together for the World competition.  I want to help guide the team in what I see as a better direction, and I want to help lead us to more successes like we had this year."

FIRST (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology) holds competitions around the world in four leagues, with two leagues for younger students (up to 8th grade), and two for high school students.  The Bobcats scored high enough in regional qualifying competitions that they were chosen to be part of an alliance consisting of the Mechanical Meltdown, Lansing Bobcats, and Fayetteville Free Library teams.  To date the Mechanical Meltdown team has progressed to the world competition, and is tied for 2nd place at the time of writing.

Lansing team members say there is much more to the competition than just robotics.

"The great thing about FIRST is it builds so many different types of skills that students don't have access to in school," says team Vice president Joshua Hulburt. "One of the main parts of this club is building a professional portfolio.  Our notebook has to be very detailed, focusing heavily on community outreach.  We have to be experts in our field.  That's really not something we've been exposed to academically."
 
Among the team's outreach programs are a week-long summer camp for middle-schoolers and visits to the elementary and middle schools.  An important portion of the visits is letting younger students get hands on experience, letting them try out the robot's remote control.  But another important piece is getting their younger peers excited about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) topics and, perhaps excited about joining the robotics club when they get to high school.

"They talked to the kids about how they could be involved even if they weren't thinking of themselves as someone who wanted to go into robotics," said Middle School Principal Christine Rebera as she recounted the team;'s visit to Lansing Middle School to the Board Of Education Monday. "They went into all the different aspects of the Robotics Club and everything they do for the competition.  It was really great.  The kids in the Robotics Club were impressed by the Middle Schoolers' questions, and it gave them a chance to talk about the robotics program.  There was a nice inter-connectiveness between the Middle School  and the High School."

You don't have to be an engineering enthusiast to be part of the Lansing Bobcats Robotics Team.  Of course designing, constructing, and programming the robot is key.  Each year the club builds a new robot designed to accomplish the tasks laid out for the season's competitions.  But communication and leadership skills are also important.  Some team members are assigned to connect with the other teams to figure out their strengths and weaknesses, and to strategize will fellow alliance teams.

"They talk to the other teams to learn their strengths and weaknesses," says Bobcats Robotics Team President Andrew Galvin. "Our drivers get together with the drivers on our alliance partner teams and talk about what they're going to do to score points so they can stay out of each others' way or work together.  This year's competition was designed so there was less interaction with the other robots."

Central to the team's activities is a thick notebook in which they record everything that happens, details about their robot, and the other teams.  The notebook is used as a learning tool to identify weaknesses that can be improved upon, as well as a detailed record of the team's year-long experience, including outreach to the wider community and lessons learned.

That may lead to improvements in the robot in between competitions.  This year a couple of large panels that grab and move blocks were split into two panels each after team members realized the blocks their robot was supposed to manipulate were of slightly different sizes.  Extra servos were added to power the two new panels, and the robot's programming was adjusted to control them.  The programming is important, because part of the task is to program the robot to act autonomously during the first 30 seconds of each competitive task.  A 'driver' uses a remote control to manipulate the robot after that.

The notebook is also a large part of what each team is judged on.

"At every competition there is not only the tournament with the robots, but there is also an interview," says Lansing Robotics Treasurer Zoli Csaki. "It's kind of like a job interview.  The judges interview you.  You have to compile a notebook through the entire year in which you document your process and everything about your team.  You show that to the judges and talk about your robot."

Despite the focus on robots, it is the human aspect that attracts many of the club members.

"I like how many people I've been able to meet that I never would have been able to meet or become close with had I not joined the team," says Head of Outreach Anya O'Neil. "I'm a senior.  There are so many juniors, sophomores, freshmen that I wouldn't have met, and now they're some of my greatest friends."

Fund raising is also important, because aside from transportation the school district does not fund the team.  Local molecular testing company Rheonix sponsors the Lansing team.  Networking in and out of the team is also a key skill for members.

"At the competitions, from the other team members to the people who are hosting," Galvin says.  "The possibilities of what you can do with these new contacts are amazing.  You have fellow students from different schools  who are going to go to different universities and major in similar majors, as well as completely different majors.  You can either be working for them, or working with them, or have them working for you at some point.  You never know when they're going to cross back into your life."

"It teaches you a lot more than engineering," says Rosenberg. "Coming into FIRST, joining an FTC team, the social interactions you have to have, whether it's talking with other teams, or talking amongst your own team, it's greatly helped me develop my social skills."

You don't have to want to go into robotics as a career to get a lot from being part of the team.  O'Neil says she is interested in studying biochemistry, but the documentation skills will help in that pursuit.  Rosenberg is considering a career in genetics.  Galvin says he would like a career in aerospace engineering or robotics, and Hulbert is also applying for college engineering programs.  Csaki says being part of the robotics club helped him decide.

"I wasn't sure I was going to go into engineering before I joined the club, but now I'm going to Cornell Engineering, so I'm excited," he says.

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