Memphis Commercial Appeal article on US First Robot Team
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
Herff College of Engineering at the University of Memphis held it’s Engineering Day (E-Day) open house. Students and the public had an opportunity to see what Engineering and Technology are all about.
Students learn about robotics during E-Day Open House
[Missed it last year, watch this blog for an announcement for next year’s E-Day Open House!]
From Mid-South BEST website:
Mid-South Community College is proud to host Mid-South BEST, a fun and exciting way to engage students in Science and Technology. MSCC received a grant from the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority to serve as a host “hub” for the competition. Note that there are no fees for schools to participate; all materials will be furnished free of charge.
Congratulations to our winners!
Wolfchase Homeschool 4H S.E.T. for winning 1st place in the BEST Awards
West Memphis Christian for winning 2nd place in the BEST Awards
Lausanne Collegiate School for winning 1st place in the Robotics Competition
For more pictures and video from the event go here.
By Jimmie Covington , Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Little Richie the robot struggled quite a bit Wednesday, but he and his operators made progress during three run-throughs to collect and move parts of a model airplane to an assembly site.
Tyler Schingle, 12, operates the remote control to Little Richie as Sam Lusby, 11, gives the robot an assist. The members of Team Frez at Sacred Heart School [Southaven, MS] have entered Richie in the robotics competition at Mississippi State.
A drum line played and students cheered during a practice session in the Sacred Heart School gymnasium.
The school’s Team Frez was preparing to compete in the annual Bulldog BEST robotics competition Friday and Saturday at Mississippi State University.
If the team and Little Richie rate high in the contest, they will move on to regional competition later this year at Auburn University.
This is Sacred Heart’s fourth year to enter, and, in the three previous years, Team Frez and its robots advanced to Auburn.
The Sacred Heart robots in previous years were Bomber, Rosie and Grace. They will be part of Sacred Heart’s display at this year’s contest.
The competition is designed to promote an interest in engineering and science technology.
Frez stands for “Flames Robotic Engineering Zealots.” The team members design and build the robots.
This year’s competition is called “Just Plane Crazy” and the goal is to have battery-powered Richie — who is operated by remote control — come out of his storage area and move to a warehouse, throwing a large light and door switch on the way.
He must also remove a barrier to the warehouse doorway before entering and using a flat “raiser” arm to pick up the plane parts.
All the activities are to be completed in three minutes.
Work on the pick-up arm had not been completed Wednesday and the warehouse operator had to operate the arm manually.
A student assembly was held in the gymnasium for Wednesday’s practice. Richie had trouble with the large switch and picking up and moving the parts.
Larry Robins, 13, a seventh-grader, was the operations manager on the first trial assisted by the “warehouse manager” Zachary Hodge, 9, a fourth-grader.
After the effort, Larry said, “We did OK. It probably could have been a lot better. We just have to learn to control the robot a little more.
“Right now, we haven’t gotten that far with the arm. We just assembled it today. When we get to State, hopefully we will be able to move it with the controller. … I think we are going to be ready when we get there.”
Tyler Schingle, 12, a second-grader, operated Richie on the second practice run with Sam Lusby, 11, a sixth-grader, as the warehouse manager.
Tyler said, “We did all right. We have a lot of work to do on it. … It is a lot of fun. Auburn is just so amazing. It is really fun when you get to go there.”
Larry and Zachary returned to guide Richie in the third trial.
The team’s teacher leader, Jennifer Hodge, said Team Frez placed second overall last year at Mississippi State although most of the other teams were from high schools. However, at Auburn, she said, “We got blown out of the water.”
In addition to the robot activity, the competition includes display, notebook, an oral and PowerPoint presentation, Web page and spirit and sportsmanship. Members of the drum line will travel to Starkville with the team and perform during the competition.
Nine teams from across Mississippi and one from New Orleans will be competing this year. Two other area schools will send teams — Horn Lake High School and Holly Springs High School.
