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Young engineers start work: Robotic designs must meet Youth B.O.T. ?game? rules, challenges.
Nov 17, 2008 (The News-Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Bill Decker has big plans for robots.
Decker co-founded Youth Building Our Tomorrow, or Youth B.O.T., four years ago in the hopes of bringing robotics and engineering back from their 1980s heyday and into the mainstream through competition and the classroom. Now, he's using the platform to help mold the league's student-builders into well-rounded scholars.
"What we'd like to see is more kids in school having more access to this, and the more access they have, hopefully continuing on with education," Decker said after the league unveiled this season's game and rules at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne on Saturday.
"We have a real problem...where kids don't believe they can do this stuff; they don't even try. Then at the high school level they realize they can do it, and they may come to someplace like IPFW into the engineering program. It just makes you better rounded.
"It's not just an engineering-recruiting thing. It's to give kids a creative outlet, have a little fun, have some competition outside the normal realm of what we do and interest them in continuing their education."
Decker built it, and the kids have come.
Youth B.O.T. started with seven high school teams around the area, and has mushroomed into 14 this year, with more slated to join soon. The league has steadily grown annually without dropping a team.
The league designs a new game every year, revamping the rules and regulations so every season is unlike the previous one.
Teams have until January to build their specialized robot to meet the challenges of the game. The four-month season comprises monthly competitions and practices, and after each the teams will tweak their robots accordingly in hopes of the perfect design.
The students spend nearly every day after school working with their robots.
"You have to put a lot of time into it, because if you don't then you get a robot that doesn't do anything," said sophomore Tyler Sowers of West Noble, which is in its first Youth B.O.T. season.
Sowers was attracted to Youth B.O.T. for the same reason every other student-builder is: "They're cool."
But they used to be pricey.
Robotics went underground because the bigger they got, the more expensive they became. South Side High School had the area's first robotics team, building 130-pound robots. Those teams cost some $30,000 to sponsor.
Decker's league runs about $5,000 for the entire league.
"It's really just a way to get robotics into the classroom," Decker said. "They're small robots; you don't need a fancy lab to do it. It doesn't take a lot of work. As long as you've got a laptop and a (rotary tool), you can build these."
To see more of The News-Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.FortWayne.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne,
Ind. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
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