Below is an article and pictures from The Life and Times of a Digital Immigrant of Bluff City Bots starting to design and build their robot.
MCS Bluff City Robotics Team begin designing and building their robots
DAY 1 – Initial Robot design and development
Medtronic Mentor, Rex Armstrong brainstorms robot design with Robotics Team members.
Other mentors pictured are: Kevin Humphreys (Medtronic) and Dan Kohn (University of Memphis)
Holly Springs High team working
DAY 2 – Robot development continues
Holly Springs High and H. W. Byers team building
students from BTW and Hamilton working together
students from MASE building their robot
Thanks to a generous donation from Medtronic, three MCS schools (Booker T. Washington High, Fairley High, and Hamilton High), along with the Grizzlies Academy and Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering (MASE), a local charter school, will compete for the first time in two FIRST Robotics competitions. The Memphis team also received sponsorship from NASA.
According to their website, “FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is a unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help high-school-aged young people discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and researchers can be.
The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in competitions designed by Dean Kamen, Dr. Woodie Flowers, and a committee of engineers and other professionals.”
In the last couple of days and tomorrow, these teams have come together with local and regional engineers and engineering instructors to design and begin constructing their robots. Joined by the Holly Springs High and H. W. Byers High team, students collaborated and discuss ways to construct and program their robots for competition. These three days will not be enough – students will work after school and on weekends for the next month to build and test their bots in preparation for competition. It is hopeful that these three teams will form an alliance in competition.
Teams will travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota and Milwaukee, Wisconsin in March to compete with schools from around the country. Only selected team members will make the trip to competitions. Although they have received generous donations, they still need funds for travel. To procure these funds, students have created a marketing team, who is designing a promotional package to present to local and national corporations. “We are in need of mentors and corporate sponsorship”, said Jada Askew, Academic Coordinator for School Operations (and my sister). If you know of a company who is willing to support these kids, please contact Jada Askew at askewjada@mcsk12.net