Local robotics club preps for international competition – Sun Sentinel

Jessica Russo frowned at the miniature motor to which she was fitting a tiny wheel.

"I need one of those little green things," she announced to her four teammates.

"Once you are on the table? You can't change the code," interjected mentor and coach, Rodrigo Dillon. "So set it up exactly the way you want it."

That would be the way some 255,000 students on 35,000 teams worldwide also want it: a robot built and programmed to push a cart or pick up an object - each task requiring a different computer coding that makes it all happen.

Russo and her team wanted the robot to lift and move a two-inch plastic container holding a toy over rough terrain without tipping over, then ... the team isn't sure what next. They haven't decided what that will be yet.

Elizabeth Roberts/Staff photo

The 30 members of the 4-H Tech Wizards Robotics Club in Deerfield Beach - and 32,000 other teams in 88 countries - will soon compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition, an international competition that introduces students to the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math.

Tasks are assigned nationally with teams work independently for six weeks, designing and building a robot capable of finding, transporting, using and disposing of water in some way.

The Deerfield team has various levels of experience. Dana Greenland, 10, a Quiet Waters Elementary fifth grader, built a "really large Lego ship." Zane Deblaker, who is home schooled, also built a Lego house.

Mentor David Guzman said after it organized as a 4-H club in 2015, it expanded to include not just high school students, but middle and elementary school students as well.

The club has evolved after competing in the FIRST Robotics competition 14 years ago.

When this year's challenge is released at noon on Aug. 29, the team will be waiting for this the task at hand.

"Baseball has the farm system where they progress kids to the minor leagues," said mentor Andrew Disbury. "This is the same thing for robotics.

The 4-H Tech Wizards Robotics Club meets from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays, at the Hillsboro Community Center in Deerfield Beach. For information, call 954-571-7550.

eroberts@sun-sentinel.com

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Local robotics club preps for international competition - Sun Sentinel