Category Archives: Robotics

After a robotics competition in Plainfield, the Pleasant Run Elementary School robotics team was met with racial prejudice. The fourth grade team decided to ignore the hate. Suzette Hackney/IndyStar

The Pleasant Run Pantherbots -- Elijah Goodwin, 10; Angel Herrera-Sanchez, 9; Jose Verastegui, 10; Manuel Mendez, 9; and Devilyn Bolyard, 9 -- are heading to the robotics Vex IQ World Championship next month in Louisville.(Photo: Submitted by Pleasant Run Elementary School)

It should have been a day of glory and celebration for five fourth graders from Pleasant Run Elementary. They had just won a robotics challenge at Plainfield High School, and the students new to bot competition this year were one step closer to the Vex IQ State Championship.

Then racism got in the way.

For the record, their race or ethnicity shouldnt be a part of this story. But it is. The team is made up of 9- and 10-year-olds, two who are African American and three who are Latino.

As the group called the Pleasant Run Panther Bots and their parents left the challenge last month, competing students from other Indianapolis-area schools and their parents were waiting for them in the parking lot. Go back to Mexico! two or three kids screamed at their brown-skin peers and their parents.

This verbal attack had spilled over from the gymnasium, where while the children were competing, one or two parents disparaged the Pleasant Run kids with racist comments and loud enough for the Pleasant Run families to hear.

They were pointing at us and saying that Oh my God, they are champions of the city all because they are Mexican. They are Mexican and they are ruining our country, Diocelina Herrera, the mother of PantherBot Angel Herrera-Sanchez, heard a woman say.

Because if you allow racism and hate to dictate these things, minority students from the Eastside, poor kids from a Title I school, arent supposed to be smart. They arent supposed to be talented. They arent supposed to be technologically savvy. And they definitely arent supposed to be able to best white students from surrounding communities.

For the most part, the robotics world is kind of a white world, Lisa Hopper, the teams coach and a Pleasant Run second-grade teacher, told me. Theyre just not used to seeing a team like our kids. And they see us and they think were not going to be competition. Then were in first place the whole day and they cant take it.

Nearly 35 schools competed in the Feb. 2 robotics challenge. Plainfield High School was the host, but the participating elementary school teams came from more than 20 communities in and around Indianapolis. Hopper said her team and their parents were unable to identify the competing students and the parent who made the comments.

Plainfield officials condemned the hurtful comments. A district spokesperson did not know about the incident until I contacted her, but she said a letter would be sent to every participating school to reiterate district policies.

We dont condone that behavior; we dont tolerate it in our schools, Sabrina Kapp, director of communications for Plainfield Community School Corporation, said. We talk a lot about community values here. That is simply not something that anybody associated with Plainfield schools would put up with.

On Wednesday, Scott Olinger, superintendent of Plainfield Community School Corporation, released a statement: The Plainfield Community School Corporation does not condone or tolerate language or behaviors that degrade others. Had our organizing team been made aware of the alleged behaviors by unknown adults on February 2nd, we would have taken immediate action.

We were pleased to host such an impressive array of young students, and we were equally proud of the teamwork, camaraderie, knowledge and fun that these children displayed. To learn now that adults may have acted in a way that distracted from the success of the day is disheartening. In the Plainfield schools, such behavior is unacceptable, regardless of whether it comes from adults or students.

Yet, there is another part to this story, a pure beauty that exists because the Pleasant Run students refused to allow those ugly words to crush them. In fact, theyve been emboldened by the hate. Three weeks after the incident, the Panther Bots won the Create Award for best robot design and engineering at the state championships, which qualified them for the Vex IQ World Championship next month in Louisville. They will compete with students from all over the world.

And theyll walk in with confidence.

They yelled out rude comments, and I think that they can talk all they want because at the end were still going to Worlds, 10-year-old team leader Elijah Goodwin told me this week. Its not going to affect us at all. Im not surprised because Im used to this kind of behavior. When you have a really good team, people will treat you this way. And we do have a pretty good team.

Hopper said she and her co-coach, after learning of the incident in Plainfield, gathered the team to see how they were handling it. They are resilient kids. Theyre focused. They refuse to be victims.

I was afraid they would let it get in their heads and wig them out, Hopper said. We sat down and talked to our kids, and obviously we let them share their feelings. They were on top of it already. They said: We know they are mean. We know they were jealous. Were not going to let it bother us. One of our guys said to take stuff like that and let it make you stronger.

The Panther Bots, after all, know how to persevere. Just a few months ago, this team knew nothing about robotics. The low-income school was given a grant to develop a robotics program. Fourth grade teachers were asked to identify 10 students who had potential and exhibited leadership qualities. As a tryout, the students were asked to build something with Legos.

Elijah Goodwin, 10; Angel Herrera-Sanchez, 9; Jose Verastegui, 10; Manuel Mendez, 9; and Devilyn Bolyard, 9, were selected.

Im just so proud of them, Hopper said. The great thing about these five kids is they all ended up having strengths that elevated the team. They are dynamic individuals.

I share in Hoppers pride. Im saddened that these children were subjected to racial prejudice, but I celebrate their ability to look past it. Whats disheartening, actually infuriating, are the parents who continue to exacerbate societal racism. They are teaching their children to become another generation of bigots. I cant change that.

But I can cheer for the Panther Bots to rule Worlds.

If you would like to offer some financial support to these amazing students, who need to pay for hotel, meals and travel to the World Championship in Louisville on April 23-25, visit http://www.gofundme.com/PantherBots.

Email IndyStar columnist Suzette Hackney at suzette.hackney@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @suzyscribe.

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Hackney: Kids on winning robotics team told 'Go back to Mexico' - Indianapolis Star

Muskego 2:58 p.m. CT March 16, 2017

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A student's quip "we are the weirdest family - ever" is something of a rally cry for Muskego High School's rookie robotics team, the WarriorBots.

In six weeks, an eclectic team of 24 students and nine adultmentors had to design and build a robot ready for the FIRST Robotics Steamworks regional competition set for March 22-25at Milwaukee's Panther Arena.

Veteran FIRST teams in Mukwonago, New Berlin and Waukesha advised the WarriorBots to not take the first year to ramp up, but to plunge ahead and get into the competition, said Jeffrey DeGlopper, a Muskego High School physics and engineering instructor.

With the support of nine different sponsors, the WarrorBots converted a second-floor classroom to a robotics workshop and began building a robot answering to some or all of the competition's elements.

The objective of a Steamworks round is for an alliance of three robotsto get its airship aloft. Robots must collect and deliver neon-yellow Wiffle balls to a boiler to power the airship. Four airship rotors need gears collected from the playing field to connect to the power to the rotors. And before the airship takes off, the robots must hoist themselvesaboard. Forthe first 15 second, the robots operate automatically, then a robot's team of drivers take over by remote control.

In design brainstorming,teammates came up with "wild, out-of-the-box ideas" that were incorporated the the robot, DeGlopper said. Teammates flow between five essential work groups: design and strategy, hardware, programming, driver team, and public relations and fundraising.

The WarriorBots competition robot was finished and quarantined in February, but work continuedona practice robot to improve and refine components and computer code that would be removed and installed on the competition robot once at the Regional event.

FIRST Robotics is a three-month season, but "it takes a lot of time, a lot of focused teamwork that has become an exciting experience," DeGlopper said.

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Rookie Muskego WarriorBots ready for FIRST Robotics competition - Muskego-New Berlin Now

Excitement ruled MacArthur Elementary School as the school's MacRobotics team walked away with the State Championship in VEX IQ CrossOver Challenge. After four hours of competition, Dylan Bulla, Dominic Graegin, and Dakota Newberry emerged victorious, placing first in the Teamwork Tournament of Champions. The school has won a combined 12 of these awards.

Two additional teams at the Crown Point school scored highly in the competition. The 4th grade team, 10277C consisting of Ryland Hochstetler, Michael Lamb, and Gregory Zellers had a great showing and received 2nd Place Teamwork Challenge trophy.

MacArthur didn't stop there. Team 10277D was the all-girl team made up of Lilly Caddick, Alina Conley, Breanna Johnson, and Lila Pack. Not to be left out they grasped the attention of the judges and won the Judge's Amaze Award. The award reflected their outstanding teamwork, robust design and all-around respect for robotics and engineering.

MacArthur Principal Marian Buchko said, "We couldn't be prouder of our teams and Miss Graczyk, our fifth grade teacher," she said. "They have been so dedicated and worked so hard."

The MacArthur students have been working on their project since the first of August. Robotics projects are designed so every team in the country gets their instructions and materials to build their robots at the same time. They have to design and build their robots and then make them perform.

With their performances, all three teams earned an invitation to the VEX IQ World Championship Competition at the Kentucky Convention Center in Louisville in April. The three-day competition will have 275 elementary school robotics teams from around the world, and the MacArthur teams hope to attend if they if funds can be raised. The coaches and parents will be paying for their own way according to Buchko.

"Now we are trying to raise funding," Buchko said. "The cost for the students only is $7,000 total. That includes hotel, food, t-shirts and everything."

They are driving in family cars to cut the cost of buses.

"The MacRobotics team started four seasons ago, this team has grown leaps and bounds since its beginnings," Graczyk said. "Absolutely, none of this would be possible without the monetary support of the Crown Point Community Foundation and other local businesses."

Graczyk is also looking for help with contributions to the World Competition. For information, contact her at agraczyk@cps.k12.in.us.

"Truthfully, I am over the moon with this opportunity and as I have gathered more information I cannot believe we are going!" Graczyk wrote in a letter to parents. "There will be 275 elementary robotics teams going and our school/program has 3! The kids are beyond thrilled and cannot stop talking, singing and dancing about it. All of this makes me one lucky coach to be going with them."

kconley@post-trib.com

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MacArthur captures state title in VEX IQ Robotics - Chicago Tribune

GAYLORD The Gaylord High School robotics team is hosting its first district competition today (Friday) and Saturday.

The For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology event is planned to take place at the high school gym.

Teams are set to face off against each other with qualifying match play from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. today (Friday).

The event is free, open to the public and while school is in session today, parking will be limited until school releases around 3 p.m. Matches are set to resume Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with playoff rounds starting at 2 p.m., followed by award presentations.

The competition theme is steampunk and combines a Victorian-era setting before electricity where people used alternative forms of energy like steam with a science fiction or fantasy twist.

During the competition, three teams work together against three other teams in an alliance to see which group can climb aboard a steam-powered airship and fly off first.

Robots are required to operate for 15 seconds on their own at first without a remote control on the game field. The competing robots then collect gears and softball-sized hollow yellow balls from the field. Players can later use a remote control to maneuver the bots.

The balls and gears fuel a boiler for airships where robots can then pull themselves aboard once the team has enough fuel.

GHS Devil Bots and Johannesburg-Lewiston High Schools Army of Sum team are scheduled to play at the Gaylord event.

The two-day event is the culmination of six weeks of strategy, design and build efforts of over 1,000 students from 40 teams across the state, reads a Devil Bots news release.

Top teams from the district competitions then qualify for state competition April 12-15 in Saginaw.

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Gaylord to host robotics competition, bring 40 teams - Petoskey News-Review

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Middle and high school robotics teams from across Oregon compete on Saturday, March 11, 2017, at Chemeketa Community College. Teams competed to qualify for the VEX Robotics World Championship. (Photo: DANIELLE PETERSON / Statesman Journal)Buy Photo

More than 750middle and high school students crammed into the Chemeketa Community College gymto compete in the Oregon VEX Robotics Competition Saturday.

Ninety-eight teams from 62 schools in the state competed in the robotics competition that determined which teams would advance to the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.

"The whole thing weve been building up to today actually, but it took about a couple weeks to get everything fine tuned - especially with its hands," said Paul Smith, 15, of West Salem High School.

Smith and his team of four other members spent the last five months designing, building and programming their robot for the VEX competition.

Entire class periods, lunch breaks and after school hours were spent making adjustments to the robot for the competition's drivers skills and programming skills challenges.

The competition, which is separated into three divisions - platinum, gold and bronze - asked teams to build and program their robots to compete against other teams on competitive fields. The goal is to program the robot to pick up and throw bags and plastic objects reminiscent of jax over a wall to the competitor's field.

For the first 15 second portion of the competition, the robot acts autonomously to pick up and throw the objects. After that short portion, a team memberpicks up a controller and then directs the robot to move.

"There is an excitement and ease to start with robotics," said Joe Shepard, the coordinator of the state championships. "These kids are doing things they've never done before and we've seen in the last 12 to 15 years that the world really needs more engineers."

After winning best of three in the semi-finals, the West Salem team returned the "pit," an area where teams replace batteries, nurse gear settings, make repairs and modify any mechanical bugs before moving onto the next round.

While Smith adjusts a gear on the robot's arms, his teammateTyler Keopadapsy shared his team's strategy during field competitions.

"Our main driver is Paul, so werewatching him drive and telling him what we should do to win," Keopadapsy said. "If hes feeling too cocky or confident, we'll tell him to slow down, ease it up and change up the strategy."

The strategy paid off, as the West Salem Team was crowned the platinum division champion and the judge's award. The team's tournament win now makes the team eligible to attend the world championship in Kentucky.

"Weve had consistent success and thats helped out with our overall performance," saidGreyson Walker,of West Salem High School.

Walker, 17, already had 6 years of programming experience under his belt before participating in the competition. He said he spent more than 70 hours of his own time programming the robot's autonomous and skills features.

Walker points to the back of teammates green shirt, where five stars embellishing his high school's name represent the five years Salem High School has attended the world championship.

"We have a very significant history with robotics," Walker.

The team can expect to add one more starto their team shirt next year.

View all of the state's winners here.

Read more:

South Salem girls basketball's reign comes to a sudden halt

History making double overtime win earns West Salem first state trophy

Virtual Schools Day at the Oregon State Capitol

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West Salem High wins big at robotics competition - Statesman Journal - Statesman Journal

The Trumansburg Central School District Board of Education got a special treat during Monday nights meeting when the Trumansburg High School Robotics Team demonstrated some of what they do.

The Robotics Team is under the advisement of Brad Farnham and Jeff Honig. The team is comprised of 16 students with over one-third being female.

Thats a big plus for this team, said Farnham. We were trying to garner more female people in the group.

Teams from all over participate in what is called FIRST Robotics Competition, which is also known as the varsity sport for the mind.

Part of the teams presentation was a video that explains this years game and how its scored. Each year a different game is played and this years is First Steamworks.

The game calls for two adventure teams that can have three alliances each, according to a video Farnham showed about the game. The teams prepare for a long distance airship race by collecting fuel to build steam pressure.

In this case, the fuel are tennis balls that the robots carry and shoot into the boiler. Each robot starts at the alliance stations against a wall, where teams can load up to 10 fuel elements and one gear on each robot.

More fuel is found in hoppers that are spread out around the perimeter of the playing field, as well as at the alliance loading stations. For 15 seconds the robots are autonomous, with the goal of reaching the baseline, scoring fuel in the boiler or delivering gears to the airship.

When the teams are able to control the robots again, they have two minutes and 15 seconds to gather fuel for the boilers, as well as collecting and delivering gears.

Team members located behind the alliance station wall deliver gears and recycled fuel to robots through the loading stations, according to the video. The more fuel placed in the boiler, the higher the steam pressure.

The teams are able to earn points based on how much steam pressure is built and they can also earn extra points with pressure over a certain level. Gears also need to be delivered to the rotors with the goal of making as many of them spin as possible in the given time frame.

Teams also get points for each rotor that spins as well as how many robots are attached to the airship toward the end of the match. The winner is determined by the highest number of points.

The first Saturday in January it was revealed at the same time around the world, Farnham said.

After the game is revealed, teams have six weeks to create industrial-size robots that can play the game against other competitors. They are challenged to use their teamwork and problem solving skills to create the robots under strict rules and limited resources.

We were fortunate enough to be able to build two robots this year, Farnham said. One we are able to use for practice. We can take certain components off this robot and put it on the competition robot depending on weight limits and so forth.

Farnham said the robotics team has also taken a huge undertaking with what program they use to program the robots.

He added that while the team lost four members to graduation, they still have a nice core of students ranging in grade levels.

Its a heck of a nucleus to move forward, Farnham said. Its a great foundation to keep us going.

The team will be participating in two upcoming events. The first is from March 15-18 at RIT and the second is from March 29-April 1 at the Long Island SBPLI.

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A Glimpse into Robotics - ithaca.com

The purpose of the organization that runs the competition, FIRST, is to spark interest in science and engineering among students. The organization offers a variety of scholarships, besides organizing the tournaments.

BRIDGEWATER Perched atop a small tower in the center of Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High Schools gym, Aimee Rodrigue popped a cog into place, and the crowd went wild.

Cranking an attached handle set a propeller over her head into motion, and the score for the Blue Alliance team, of which the schools TJ2 robotics team was a member, rose to the high 200s.

On the floor below, the teams student-built robot pulled away to go snag another gear, beating an opposing robot out of the way as it tried to block its path.

Behind a Plexiglas barrier a few feet away, Nick Avtges and two other members of TJ2 furiously worked their control pads to make it all happen.

By the time the match ended, their score was well over 300 among the highest of the day so far. The hard work theyd put into building the robot had paid off during the first of a series of regional tournaments in the FIRST Robotics league.

Bridgewater-Raynham was chosen to host the event this year. The gymnasium was transformed into a high tech arena, and hundreds attended.

If the team continues to do well, theyll make it to the finals, to be held at the University of New Hampshire.

Brandon Holley, who works for FIRST and ran the weekends tournament, said each year features a new game.

This years season had a steam punk theme teams had to use their robots to collect neon green Wiffle balls that represent fuel for an airship the tower and the gears to make it fly.

At the end, the robots had to be lifted on to the ship with ropes.

The top eight of the 42 teams form permanent alliances for the final rounds, and the top alliance is the tournament winner.

Holley said the purpose of the organization is to spark interest in science and engineering among students. The organization offers a variety of scholarships, besides organizing the competitions.

Its all about building it yourself, learning skills, competing in a graciously professional way, he said. You enhance the chances of a student hooking on to a science or engineering field. It totally works.

Nick Avtges, a member of the TJ2 team, said their robots dominance to that point proves the value of the hard work they all put into creating it.

Over the four years, this is best robot I think weve produced, he said. Alumni said before that, even going nine years back its the best weve had in a while.

Avtges said their robots was designed to be fast enough to quickly cross the field while being sturdy enough to fend off opposing robots that tried to play defense.

It was very successful in this match especially he noted.

TJ2 will play 10 more matches over the course of the tournament, Avtges said.

Locally, Oliver Ames High School also sent their Iron Tigers team to compete.

The competition continues Sunday.

Scores can be found at: https://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2017mabri

Got news tips? Contact Tom Relihan at trelihan@enterprisenews.com.

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Fighting robots invade Bridgewater-Raynham: school hosts regional ... - Wicked Local Easton

Five robotics enthusiasts from Sky View High will be taking a trip to the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, next month after winning the state championship in Farmington last weekend.

Two teams from Sky View, along with a team from Davis County, will compete against 1,400 robotics teams from around the world including Australia, China and Canada over April 19 to 25. Utah is able to send three teams to the world competition, while bigger states like California and Texas send more students.

It is the world stage of Vex Robotics, Sky Robotics and Engineering Teacher Jared Storrs said.

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The Vex Robotics challenge is different each year. This years gameinvolved two teams robots flinging, pushing and shoving foam jacks and bean bags over a fence. The robots first use an autonomous mode, where robots move based on code, followed by a longer period where students control their robots using a remote similar to a video game controller.

Of the the 24 teams at the state competition, two of the three winners came from Sky View. The competition started with qualifying matches before teams chose alliances.

Kaledon Grandy, a ninth-grade student from North Cache Middle School who joined the Sky View robotics club, said his team was ranked 20 out of 24 in the qualifiers, but a strong team from Davis County picked both of the Sky View teams for their alliance. The three teams ended up winning the state championship.

They just played the game right and did well enough throughout the year that everybody kind of knew who they wanted for that final, Storrs said.

Grandy said his classmates are excited for him.

They think about sport teams, and if you go to states thats a big thing, and nationals is amazing, but worlds is really awesome, Grandy said.

This is Grandys first year in robotics, but he took a basic robotics camp over the summer and enjoyed the engineering aspect. He said he likes figuring out how to make something work and finding ways to create different types of motion.

You have to be able to look at a pile of scraps and turn it into something, Grandy said.

He said he has no idea what to expect at worlds, but he remains excited about the competition next month.

Im looking forward to seeing all the diverse teams from different parts of the world and seeing how we can all fit together in this simple little competition, Grandy said.

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Sky View robotics wins state championship - The Herald Journal

Every Friday night when the clock strikes 7 p.m., dozens of students flood in to Mountain View High School to get back to work. Whether it's drilling, cutting or bending metal parts, designing software or working on electrical wiring, members of the school's Spartan Robotics team seem to have no problem committing the next five or six hours to tinkering when most students are more than happy to leave school behind for the weekend.

Whatever is driving students to commit countless hours to building a robot that can perform complex actions, both autonomously and with a remote control, it appears to be infectious. Over the last five years, Spartan Robotics has exploded in popularity, growing to a roster of 50 students, and now ranks among the top teams in the world. Even students and parents who have long since graduated out are sticking around for another season.

Spartan Robotics, affectionately referred to as Team 971 by the membership, participates in a global competition known as First Robotics, where students have just a couple months to design, build and test a robot -- normally the size of a dishwasher -- that can perform various actions to earn points. Among other things, this year's robot needs to be able to pick up a large number of Wiffle balls and launch them precisely into a bin.

If there was ever a way to expose students to all aspects of hands-on STEM education at the same time, the controlled chaos of work that goes on between January and March is pretty much it. Students are constantly engineering parts of the robot, creating prototypes -- some of which are rapidly re-designed or replaced -- and writing up software that allows the robot to function on its own using sensors. The team relies on mentors, many of whom are parents and returning students, to guide it and ensure that a robot is complete, bagged and ready to go in time for the first competition.

"It's really exciting, especially this early in the season," said Chris Mintz, a third-year member of Spartan Robotics, during a frenzied day of work on Jan. 20. Details on this year's competition had only been revealed a few weeks before, and the team was knee-deep in creating robot components and experimenting to see what works. The team has a reputation for being a little too ambitious with designs, Mintz said, and has a tendency to create complex, over-engineered parts. But with such a big roster this year and so many students showing up each day, improvements are constantly being made.

"A team full of minds is always better than one," he said.

Hundreds of teams from all over the world participate in the FIRST competition, and Spartan Robotics currently ranks among the best. In 2014, the team took first place at two regional competitions and participated in the final championship game in St. Louis, Missouri, before narrowly losing in the finals. But the recent success and intense student interest in Spartan Robotics has been just that -- recent.

The team's roster has grown exponentially in the past few years, said Austin Schuh, who participated in his first Spartan Robotics game 13 years ago and continues to help out. Back then, he recalled, the team was only eight students strong and had to work out of a science prep area in the middle of a classroom wing. Each day the team would have to clean up and clear out before class the next day.

Now the team has its own home in a small classroom in the back of the campus, full of tools, machine parts, a home-built Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router, and an entire lineage of robots from past years. The CNC router means the team can built some of its parts in-house, and doesn't have to rely solely on metal fabrication shops in the Bay Area during a time-critical phase of the competition.

Schuh's job as the lead software mentor is to help students write the C++ coding that tells the robot what to do during the competition's autonomous round. Many of the students on the team this year -- about 75 percent of whom are freshmen and sophomores -- don't have a strong coding background, but it's an essential part of the competition, he said.

"The robot has no chance of aiming the balls without some sort of software," he said.

Driven by passion

On any given week during "build" season, students and mentors put upwards of 30 hours into designing, building and testing the robot, with the most progress taking place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. But team members don't seem to look at the major time commitment as a sacrifice -- they see it as an opportunity to work on something that matters.

Brian Silverman, who has been on the team for seven straight seasons -- four as a student and three as a mentor -- said it's always fun to work on something that you know will be a finished product, and students get motivated to put in the time and effort when they realize they can actually make a difference in the final design.

Spartan Robotics also gives students a chance to diverge from learning about engineering and computer science in a classroom. Instead, Silverman said, students take part in a hands-on experience where there is no right answer, and the team has to get creative in order to solve real-life problems.

"I want to help show more kids what engineering is really like, where we don't know what the answer is," Silverman said. "You find out if you've got the right answer if it works or not."

Silverman, like Schuh, can't seem to part ways with Spartan Robotics. After graduating from Mountain View High School, he continues to help out as a mentor even after he moved to the East Coast for college, tuning in via Skype and working remotely. Part of the reason why Spartan Robotics transitioned into a highly competitive team and grew in popularity around the 2011-2012 school year, he said, is that mentors like himself kept coming back and building on the team's legacy.

"With more mentors, we've got more bandwidth to work with students who come in and don't know what to do," he said.

For some students, the real action starts at the competitions, which includes a complex combination of on-the-fly adjustments to the robot, scouting other teams and driving the robot during the main event. Sabina Davis, a freshman and team captain, said she picked up a passion for driving back in sixth grade when her brother was on the team, and she got a chance to test drive during a practice game in 2013. She's had a presence on the team ever since, starting out as an off-season driver and pitching in during the build season.

"I was only 4-foot-11when I started," Davis said. "It turns out small hands help with a lot of the electrical work."

Being on the drive team is a little nerve-wracking to think about what's at stake, but it's easy to get in the zone and focus on playing the game, she said. When the competition is over, it's hard to remember how things went.

"You never remember what happened after the match," she said. "That kind of feeling, when you tune everything out and feel like you are the robot, is what makes it all worth it."

The growth in the popularity of the robotics competition has been staggering in the Bay Area over the last five years, said Janet McKinley, the regional director of FIRST for Northern California. It's not uncommon for teams based in Silicon Valley to double or triple in size in just a few years. Nearby teams like Bellarmine's Team 254 -- also known as "The Cheesy Poofs" -- have also thrived and now rank among the best in the world.

Competitions in the area, including the Silicon Valley Regional in San Jose and the newly-added San Francisco Regional, are expected to attract anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 spectators, McKinley said.

Although it's hard to pinpoint what's causing the sudden boost in interest, McKinley said most of the outreach and advertising comes from the bottom up. Students and individual teams are able to drum up excitement about the robotics competition, even for teens who may not have a strong interest in engineering.

Mountain View High School team, in particular, benefits from having a returning cast of mentors that is relentless at building up passion and enthusiasm for the competition, said Steve Silverman, a mentor and father of Brian Silverman. He said a lot of it comes directly from the lead mentors for the team -- Wyn and Michael Schuh -- who manage the team every year, even though their children have long since graduated out of Mountain View High.

"The Schuh family has really set the tone," Silverman said. "It's almost like a cult -- you start out just for fun and you just get sucked in."

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Robotics club thrives at Mountain View High - Mountain View Voice

First-year competitor Alysa Arthur is learning how to code with robots and she loves it.

Alysa is one of six students that make up the Junior Jackets Robotics Team at Wilson Middle School in Council Bluffs.

Coding is my favorite because when you code something you first see it on a computer and that makes the robot go somewhere else and you get to see what it does, Arthur said. I like that.

Her mom, Christy Arthur, spearheaded the first-year program, after she saw first-hand the opportunities her son, Seth, had on the robotics team at the high school level. (Alysa and Seths father is school board president Troy Arthur.)

It totally reshaped his world, she said. So I wanted to make sure these kids had it too.

When she first started working to bring the program to the middle school last year, Christy Arthur said there wasnt any funding available, so she and parent Matt Koletzke self-funded the program to get it off the ground.

Then additional support came their way after Thomas Jefferson High School robotics coach James Crum gave a spare robotics kit to the program. Christy Arthur and Koletzke then bought the additional tools needed to get started and asked T.J. computer science technology teacher Denise Hoag to sponsor the program.

Hoag agreed, joining the team last October.

Being its the first year, we are helping each other along the way, Hoag said. We learned how to pull out the rules and manual to learn specifically what we needed to accomplish for the judges. I keep telling them they paved the way, making it a little easier for those who want to join next year.

Today, six students comprise the program with students being split into two teams of three students each. Seventh-grader Alysa (seventh-grade) along with eighth-graders Chase Koletzke and Brandon Whitsel make up team 2501W. Sixth-graders Toby Mass, Blake Whitsel and Gracie Clark make up team 2501X.

The students meet twice a week after school learning science, technology, engineering and math concepts through hands-on robotic activities in their free time.

Theyre learning engineering skills with gears, motors and controllers and how they all go together to complete the task required for competition, Hoag said. They also have to program the robot to move autonomously, so they learn programming skills too.

While the students learn different STEM skills by interacting hands-on with robots, they also learn research and documentation skills through different projects provided by VEX, a company involved in middle and high schools across the country that helps students expand their understanding of STEM through robotics.

One program recently included completing a project related to robots in the community. Students visited Fox Run Assisted Living in Council Bluffs to demonstrate robotic pets, and the students received a huge response, Hoag said.

We held a spaghetti feed to fund raise and ended up purchasing four robotic companion pets to give them, Hoag added.

Having competed in three competitions so far this school year, the students continue to impress judges, earning top honors wherever they go. So far, the team has earned three top awards including an excellence, design and STEM award.

Most importantly, they learn how to work on a team, Hoag said. They learn how to collaborate and come up with ideas and try them out and see which one works the best,

On April 4, the team will head to the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs to compete at the U.S. Open Robotics Championship. Then team 2501W will head to Louisville, Kentucky, to compete against hundreds of other students in the VEX Worlds competition beginning April 24.

Its amazing how much theyve grown and learned in a small amount of time, Hoag said. To take the program from brand new and now going to the Worlds Championship demonstrates a great amount growth and learning.

While the program has since received funding from the AIM Institute to continue operating, the students dont have the funds needed to attend the Kentucky competition, which was described by one parent as the equivalent of making it to the Olympics.

So Christy Arthur is also spearheading a number of different fundraising efforts. On April 12, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Buffalo Wild Wings, located in the Metro Crossing Shopping Center, will host the team and donate 10 percent of sales when anyone that dines in mentions the fundraiser.

There will also be a bake sale today from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Legislative Coffee held at Wilson Middle School. Those interested in donating, can also do so through the teams Go Fund Me account at gofundme.com/jrjackets2501.

Alysa Arthur said she will most likely continue to stay involved with robotics through college. Even though shell eventually leave Wilson, her mom plans on staying involved with the program.

Ill be working with the elementary schools to further this down, Christy Arthur said. For me, its not just robotics, it teaches STEM, teamwork, collaboration, research and documentation and a lot of honor through design. I think its a great program and it should be at every school, I started here and Im going to keep pushing until everyone sees the value I do.

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First-year Wilson robotics team kicks it into gear, continues to succeed - The Daily Nonpareil