TMCnet News
Memphis students find fun and challenge in building robotsJan 13, 2013 (The Commercial Appeal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The four boys sat around a table, consumed with the mess of parts, wheels and gears and in front of them, and seemed not to notice the clangs or thuds coming from nearby tables. They were absorbed in a thick packet of instructions that would help them turn a pile of metal pieces into what they hope will be an award-winning robot. Why spend a Saturday morning building a robot that can play Frisbee instead of just, well, playing Frisbee "It's just fun to do something different," said 16-year-old Cameron Gentry, before turning his gaze back to his tools. Saturday was a day of designing and building for dozens of high-schoolers who came to the Herff Engineering School at the University of Memphis to participate in the First Robotics Competition, a worldwide challenge open to teams of high-school aged kids trying to build the winning robot. Each year the kids have to build a robot capable of playing a different game. This year, the game is called Ultimate Ascent. To play the first part of the game, the robots have to locate, grab, aim and then throw Frisbees at a designated target -- all without any guidance from the team. For the second game, the kids have to control the robot remotely as it travels up to 35 mph amid a field full of robots while fighting over Frisbees and trying to hit targets with them. Building season opened on Jan. 5 and will last for six weeks, during which the kids must design, build, program and practice with their robots before surrendering them to the Memphis teams' coordinator, Jada Askew, to be shipped to Knoxville for the regional competition. Askew has overseen the competition in Memphis since 2009, when the city put together its first and only team. Now there are 12 teams and well over a hundred kids involved in the program, mostly coming from inner city schools, Askew said. About 95 percent of the teams are sponsored by Memphis City Schools through the Race to the Top money, but, Askew said, that money will be gone by next year. The other 5 percent of teams get funded by local businesses such as Medtronic. It's the travel to regional and international competitions, which are held in April in St. Louis, that the kids really love, Askew said. "You have to realize these are inner-city kids," she said. "They go nowhere besides the four walls of their schools and the four walls of their houses." While there is no cash prize for winning at the regional or even international level, Askew said there is roughly $16 million worth of scholarship money attached to the competition. When the students apply for college at participating universities, they can indicate their participation in the First Robotics Competition on the application and could receive scholarships as a result. "It's just amazing, what these kids can really do," Askew said. ___ (c)2013 The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.) Visit The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.) at www.commercialappeal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |