Category Archives: Robotics

(WXYZ) - The season for Michigan FIRST Robotics is well underway.

And while building robots is fun, the program can also be a game changer for students, inspiring them to pursue an interest in tech related fields.

Elyse Lopez Turner of Detroit Labs and Joaquin Nuno-Whelan of General Motors stopped by Broadcast House this morning to talk about the teams they help mentor from the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation.

"FIRST Robotics is the best thing I've ever seen for teaching kids STEM activities...hands-on, quick and in six weeks, you go from not knowing anything about it to building a full working robot," said Nuno-Whelan.

The pair showed off "Mechanical Puma 1" from the Western International High School team, the Mechanical Pumas.

"We did some pre-season education.. electrical, mechanical and also business, because in a team, they are not only building a robot, they have to present professionally at competitions. So it's been really inspiring to see students go from knowing nothing.. to building a full-on functioning robot, learning through play," said Lopez Turner.

Each year, the teams are issued a challenge. This competition season, robots will have to be capable of shooting balls about 20 feet into a boiler and deliver gears to the center of the playing field where a team member will put them together to make a "STEAMship" take off. At the end of the match, Nuno-Whelansays the bots will then have to climb a six foot rope.

"They do it in teams of three together in an alliance, so they really build this "coopertition" -- it's called -- where they compete but cooperate at the same time," he said.

Most importantly, they say, the program really helps give kids an eye on the future.

"We have over 50 mentorsthat come from mostly GM but other companies that work hundreds of hours with these kids and the near-peer mentoring, the robot is just the vehicle to make all of that happen," said Nuno-Whelan. "With the 10 teams we now have at DHDC, and over 150 high school kids doing this... it's grown into a STEM-pipeline, so we have kids now graduating, getting full ride scholarships to study engineering and then we fight over hiring them."

To learn more about FIRST Robotics, check this out. Also, if you're interested in learning more about the DHDC, go here.

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Michigan FIRST Robotics program offers students new opportunities - WSYM-TV

People have been exploring the Earth since ancient timestraversing deserts, climbing mountains, and trekking through forests. But there is one ecological realm that hasnt yet been well explored: the oceans. To date, just 5 percent of Earths oceans have been seen by human eyes or by human-controlled robots.

Thats quickly changing thanks to advancements in robotic technologies. In particular, a new class of self-controlled robots that continually adapt to their surroundings is opening the door to undersea discovery. These autonomous, curious machines can efficiently search for specific undersea features such as marine organisms and landscapes, but they are also programmed to keep an eye out for other interesting things that may unexpectedly pop up.

Curious robotswhich can be virtually any size or shapeuse sensors and cameras to guide their movements. The sensors take sonar, depth, temperature, salinity, and other readings, while the cameras constantly send pictures of what theyre seeing in compressed, low-resolution form to human operators. If an image shows something different than the feature a robot was programmed to explore, the operator can give the robot the okay to go over and check out in greater detail.

The field of autonomous underwater robots is relatively young, but the curious-robots exploration method has already lead to some pretty interesting discoveries, says Hanumant Singh, an ocean physicist and engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. In 2015, he and a team of researchers went on an expedition to study creatures living on Hannibal Seamount, an undersea mountain chain off Panamas coast. They sent a curious robot down to the seabed from their manned submersiblea modern version of the classic Jacques Cousteau yellow submarineto take photos and videos and collect living organisms on several dives over the course of 21 days.

On the expeditions final dive, the robot detected an anomaly on the seafloor, and sent back several low-resolution photos of what looked like red fuzz in a very low oxygen zone. The robots operators thought what was in the image might be interesting, so they sent it over to the feature to take more photos, says Singh. Thanks to the curious robot, we were able to tell that these were crabsa whole swarming herd of them.

The team used submarines to scoop up several live crabs, which were later identified through DNA sequencing as Pleuroncodes planipes, commonly known as pelagic red crabs, a species native to Baja California. Singh says it was extremely unusual to find the crabs so far south of their normal range and in such a high abundance, gathered together like a swarm of insects. Because the crabs serve as an important food source for open-ocean predators in the eastern Pacific, the researchers hypothesize the crabs may be an undetected food source for predators at the Hannibal Seamount, too.

When autonomous robot technology first developed 15 years ago, Singh says he and other scientists were building robots and robotics software from scratch. Today a variety of programming interfacessome of which are open-sourceexist, making scientists jobs a little easier. Now they just have to build the robot itself, install some software, and fine-tune some algorithms to fit their research goals.

While curious robot software systems vary, Girdhar says some of the basics remain the same. All curious robots need to collect data, and they do this with their ability to understand different undersea scenes without supervision. This involves teaching robots to detect a given class of oceanic features, such as different types of fish, coral, or sediment. The robots must also be able to detect anomalies in context, following a path that balances their programmed mission with their own curiosity.

This detection method is different from traditional undersea robots, which are preprogrammed to follow just one exploration path and look for one feature or a set of features, ignoring anomalies or changing oceanic conditions. One example of a traditional robot is Jason, a human-controlled ROV, or remotely operated vehicle, used by scientists at Woods Hole to study the seafloor.

Marine scientists see curious robots as a clear path forward. To efficiently explore and map our oceans, intelligent robots with abilities to deliberate sensor data and make smart decisions are a necessity, says yvind degrd, a marine archaeologist and Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems at Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

degrd uses robots to detect and investigate shipwrecks, often in places too dangerous for human divers to explorelike the Arctic. Other undersea scientists in fields like biology and chemistry are starting to use curious robots to do things like monitor oil spills and searching for invasive species.

Compared to other undersea robots, degrd says, autonomous curious robots are best suited to long-term exploration. For shorter missions in already explored marine environments, its possible to preprogram robots to cope with predictable situations, says degrd. Yet, for longer missions, with limited prior knowledge of the environment, such predictions become increasingly harder to make. The robot must have deliberative abilities or intelligence that is robust enough for coping with unforeseen events in a manner that ensures its own safety and also the goals of the mission.

One big challenge is sending larger amounts of data to human operators in real time. Water inhibits the movement of electromagnetic signals such as GPS, so curious robots can only communicate in small bits of data. degrd says to overcome this challenge, scientists are looking for ways to optimize data processing.

According to Singh, one next step in curious robot technology is teaching the robots to work in tandem with drones to give scientists pictures of sea ice from both above and below. Another is teaching the robots to deal with different species biases. For example, the robots frighten some fish and attract othersand this could cause data anomalies, making some species appear less or more abundant than they actually are.

degrd adds that new developments in robotics programs could allow even scientists without a background in robotics the opportunity to reap the benefits of robotics research. I hope we will see more affordable robots that lower the threshold for playing with them and taking risks, he says. That way it will be easier to find new and innovative ways to use them.

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The 'Curious' Robots Searching for the Ocean's Secrets - The Atlantic

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In January, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliamentput forward a draft report urging the creation and adoption of EU-wide rules to corral the myriad issues arising from the widespread use of robots and AIa development, it says, is poised to unleash a new industrial revolution.

Its an interesting read, and a valiant effort to get a handle on how to standardize and regulate the ever-expanding robot universe: drones, industrial robots, care robots, medical robots, entertainment robots, robots in farmingyou name it, theyre all inthere.

Beginning with Frankensteins monster, Pragues golem, and Karel apeks robot and ending with a code of ethics for robotics engineers and some daunting lists of shoulds for robot designers and end users, the 22-page worry catalog toggles between practical concerns about liability, accountability, and safetywhos going to pay when a robot or a self-driving car has an accident?and far-ranging ones about when robots will need to be designated electronic persons, and how we will ensure that their creators make them good ones.

The practical concerns addressed include a call for the creation of a European agency for robotics and artificial intelligence to support the European Commission in its regulation- and legislation-making efforts. Definitions and classifications of robots and smart robots need to be detailed, and a robot registration system described. Interoperability and access to code and intellectual property rights are addressed. Even the impact of robotics on the workforce and the economy are flagged for oversight.

The electronic persons discussion, tucked halfway through the report, caught everyones attentionperhaps because its much more fun to catastrophize about HAL 9000 and Skynet than it is to ponder robot insurance requirements. And because personhoodwhat it legally means to be recognized as a personissuch a loaded topic.

Mady Delvaux, a Luxembourg member of the EP and the reports author, attempted to clarify the designation of what a limited electronic personality would be, saying that it would be comparable to the standing that corporations have as legal persons, making it possible for them to conduct business, limit liability, and sue or be sued for damages.

But we havent finished addressing legal definitions of personhood for women, children, and higher-order animals like chimpanzees yet. Are we really ready to take on robot e-personhood?

I called Joanna Bryson, reader in the department of computer science at the University of Bath, in England, and a working member of the IEEE Ethically Aligned Design project, to ask her what she thought, having just read the Reddit Science Ask Me Anythingshe did about the future of AI and robotics. Her response? As soon as you put the word person in the draft, youre probably in trouble.

She told me about Australian law professor S.M.Solaimans article Legal Personality of Robots, Corporations, Idols and Chimpanzees: A Quest for Legitimacy,which argues that corporations are legal persons but AIs and chimpanzees arent. Legal persons must know and be able to claim their rights: They must be able to assert themselves as members of a society, which is why nonhuman animals (andsome incapacitated humans), and artifacts like AIs should not, according to Solaiman, be considered legal persons.

But then Bryson said something I had not considered. Since robots are ownedthey are in a sense our machine slaveswe can choose not to build robotsthat would mind being owned. We arent obliged to build robots that we end up feeling obliged to, says Bryson. So instead of assuming that an ethically challenged future saturated with sentient machines is inevitable, we could choose to maintain agency over the machines we are building and defy the technological imperative. Could we do it? Or are we so in thrall to the notion of creating artificial life, monsters, and golems, that its irresistible?

This article appears in the March 2017 print issue as Do We Have to Build Robots That Need Rights?

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Building Robots Without Ever Having to Say You're Sorry - IEEE ... - IEEE Spectrum

Why it matters to you

Exoskeletons promise to make us stronger and faster, but most of them remain bulky pieces of kit. Roam Robotics has created a lightweight alternative.

There are a number of companies in existence developing cutting-edge exoskeletons that will help us perform feats of strength or endurance beyond what our bodies can otherwise manage.

But while a lot of these creations are bulky, expensive, and rely on electromechanical components to work, San Francisco-based Roam Robotics is taking a different approach.Instead, its focusing on designs that are largely constructed out of plastic and high-strength fabrics, but which nonetheless dont give up too much in terms of power compared to other designs.

More: A robotic exoskeleton powered this disabled U.S. athlete to a prize in the Robot Olympics

We are making a new type of exoskeleton that is primarily made of plastics and fabrics instead of the metal and motors that make up traditional devices, Roam Robotics co-founder Tim Swift told Digital Trends. The goal is to make devices that can dramatically reduce system cost and weight without sacrificing overall performance. The thing that is exciting, though, is that it creates a pathway to what has always been the dream for exoskeletons: a lightweight device that regular people can get access to and use in their everyday life. Early work has shown capabilities well beyond any device to date such as making people run faster and for less energy.

Swift said that the resulting exoskeleton could be useful in a number of everyday scenarios such ashelping a person recover from a knee injury, lift heavy objects, or simply maintain the ability to go on long hikes.

Roam Roboticshas been investigating the underlying technology for several years now, and Swift noted that the plan at present is have the first devices commercially available in 2018.

The best way to interact with our technology is to reach out to us on our website and tell us what you are interested in them for, as we are always looking for people to evaluate early devices during development, he said. Also, as we progress towards commercial release, we will be looking to complete early pilot trials where we plan to draw from interested parties.

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Roam Robotics' lightweight, affordable exoskeleton designed for everyday folks - Digital Trends

MESA - Students at Mesa's Westwood High School are gearing up for a big robotics competition, and some of the teens say they never knew they had a passion for engineering or high-tech learning until they joined the club.

The robotics program is part of the school's STEM program, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

"I never thought I would be even into engineering," said junior Jill Barcena. "If I hadn't joined robotics, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to grow in this way."

The students design and build their own robots. They learn about problem solving, creativity, teamwork and getting prepared for big tech jobs.

"We can get certificates that are certifying us to work in places like Intel and Boeing," said junior Nic Peters.

The program already has big name sponsors like Boeing and Cox Communications. The instructor says it's a great program because there is no one right answer to a problem. The kids work in all kinds of ways to solve problems.

"I think the kids you see in here are the kids you are going to see in the workforce and kids who the economy is going to be built on in the future," said robotics instructor Tom Saxon.

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Mesa robotics class helps students find passion for technology - KNXV - ABC15 Arizona

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A popular approach to designing robots that can navigate a world built for living creatures is to simply copy Mother Natures designs. But while trying to improve how a six-legged robot walks, researchers at the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne actually found a faster way for six-legged creatures to get around.

While many vertebrates are able to run quickly and with minimal ground contact, six-legged insects take a different approach to speed. They use whats called a tripod gait, which means that when scurrying across flat terrain, they always have at least three legs touching the groundtwo on one side, and one on the other.

The researchers at EPFL, who also worked with the University of Lausanne, were curious to know if the tripod gait really was the fastest way for a six-legged creature to get around. So they pressed the fast-forward button on evolution and used a series of computer simulations and real-life experiments to see if there was a more efficient alternative. They eventually discovered that a bipod gait, where a six-legged creature has only two legs on the ground at any one time, allowed it to move faster, without any hardware upgrades.

But lets not a point a finger and laugh at Mother Nature just yet. While the bipod approach to six-legged running works great on flat terrain, the simulations the researchers ran also revealed that the more traditional tripod approach is actually better for insects who use sticky feet to walk on walls, ceilings, and other surfaces where theyre constantly fighting gravity.

When crawling through a jungle where the terrain changes from inch to inch, it makes sense that insects would use an evolved approach to getting around that allows them to navigate every possible hazardas opposed to one that prioritizes speed. But since the robots humans design are usually created and customized for very specific tasks, this discovery shows that copying Mother Nature verbatim isnt always the best approach. Sometimes, we can improve on it.

[EPFL via Robotics Trends]

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Robotics Researchers Discovered a Better Way For Insects to Walk - Gizmodo

TechFire member Brett Gallagher, 14, of Stewartstown, works on his laptop while teammember Katie Neptune, 13, of Manchester Township, looks on as the team prepares for their upcoming FIRST Robotics Competition in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)Buy Photo

For the past six weeksYork County's robotics team, TechFire 225, has been hard at work on their competition robot for the upcoming season.

During that time, 36 students on the team have poured every spare second they have into their robot before the Feb. 21 deadline, after which the team has very strict instructions on when and how they can work on their robot.

TechFire 225 is a local For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) team. FIRST is a global organization with a focus on getting kids interested in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and robotics. According tothe website, FIRST has more than 400,000 students who participate each year.

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TechFire 225represents 11 different schools in York County and has students from age 13 to 18. These students compete year round, but the main season runs from January to April each year.

On Jan.7, this year's FIRST competition was announced. Each year the competition hasa newtheme with different sets of rules, so upon the announcement the students, with the help of approximately 13 community mentors, begin building a brand new robot each year from scratch.

If you ask to see the robot or take photos, don't expect to get far. This team is the real deal and takes its competition seriously. They won't post any photos of their robot or its design before competition to keep that edge against other teams in the region.

This season:This year's theme is "FIRST Steamworks" and involves robots picking up balls, which represent fuel, and shooting them into a machine. The robots must also pick up gears that are handed to human players and must be able to climb up a rope at the end of the game, among many other things.Each part of the game results inpoints.Three FIRST teams form an alliance during the competition to compete against an alliance three other teams.

Amy Harmon Krtanjek

, a team mentor,said TechFire 225 spent two or three days after the worldwide announcementanalyzing the rules and coming up with different aspects the robot absolutely needed to have, like a space to carry the balls that the robot needed to be able to pick up.

After that, the team immediately began prototyping and building different aspects of the robot. The robot must be sealed in a bag at midnight on Feb. 21 to ensure it is not opened again. The team may unseal the bag and work on the robot for a total of sixhours after the deadline and leading up to the start of competition in March, but these hours need to be meticulously logged or they could be disqualified from competing, team mentor Donnie Krtanjek said.

Donnie Krtanjek is Amy Harmon Krtanjek's husband. Their son, Jagr

, is also involved in TechFire 225 as a student from York Country Day School.

TechFire 225 goes above and beyond just completing a competition robot, a difficult task alone.

They also create an exact replica of their competition robot, which they will work on and use after the Feb. 21 deadline. This extra robot allows them to practice after the deadline and make changes. If they like the changes or notice problems, they know exactly what to fix on the competition robot and can do it quickly, so they don't waste one minute of thesixhours they have.

Being a student on the TechFire 225 team requires important skills for the future, like working on a large team, working on deadline, marketing, communicating an idea effectively and, of course, plenty of skills in technology and engineering.

"It teaches kids persistence," Amy Krtanjek said. "A lot of times the kids here are really smart, so they've never really hit a wall in school."

They hit plenty of walls with TechFire 225, though.

JagrKrtanjek,a sophomore at York Country Day school who works with the Computer Aided Design (CAD) section of the team, said that building involves a lot of trial and error. Jagr helps builda computerized idea of what the robot should look like, so that while teams are working on different aspects, he can make sure they all come together seamlessly. This requires a lot of updates and changes as they go.

The regional competition starts in March, but TechFire 225 won't compete until March 18 and 19.On March 18 the team will compete for their rank, which is used with other data by teams to figure out who their alliances should be. March 19 will be the playoffcompetition. This competition will take place in Philadelphia.

After that, the team will compete in Montgomery, Pennsylvaniaon April 1 and 2. Depending on how well they do, the team will move on to compete in the world championships at the end of April.

TechFire team member Ben Schwartz, 14, of Hopewell Township, looks for spacers for the gear holder while working on the teams robot for their upcoming FIRST Robotics Competition, in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)

Last year:TechFire 225 could very well attend the world matches. The team is coming back from last year's phenomenal season, during which they did attend the world championship and placed in the top 24 teams out of 3,200, according to an earlier press release.

The team also attended the Indiana Robotics Invitational (IRI), a competition Jagr described as even more difficult than FIRST's competitions because it is by invitation only. Each year only 70 of the most successful teams in the country are chosen. TechFire 225 has been invited for the past three years, but this year they took second place in their alliance with other robotics teams and broke a world record.

York robotics students excel at world championships

The Team:Representing 11 different schools in York County and a variety of ages, the TechFire 225 team is incredibly diverse. One thing they all have in common is a passion for their robot, yet to be named. Each member chips in by doing whatever they can, even if it has littleto do with the technological side.

For example, 16-year-old Elle Wagner works on the scouting side of things. She's worked with other members to build an app that organizes different FIRST teams' competition information. She's instrumental in choosing who they should partner with during competitions. She first joined three years ago when she heard about the team in class at Susquehannock High School and went to an event.

"I love the strategy, I think it's so cool," Elle said.

Her favorite part about being on the team is the dynamic, not only among her own team members but the other teams during competition. FIRST, and thus TechFire 225, are huge proponents of gracious professionalism, which means being gracious even to your competitors regardless of the outcome.

"Everyone respects everyone," Ellesaid. "It's not just robots. The team environment is different than any other sport."

TechFire CAD team member Jagr Krtanjek, 15, of Loganville, works with specs for the FIRST Robotics Competition Team's robot in Jacobus, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. Dawn J. Sagert photo(Photo: The York Dispatch)

Through her time at TechFire, Elle has found a passion for bio engineering, which she ultimately hopes to major in when she graduates.

Kylie Nikolaus, a 17-year-old senior on the team from Eastern York High School, has had a similar experience, but unlike Elle she loves the technical side. She joined the team four years ago with her best friend and has been an active member ever since.Thanks to TechFire 225, Kylie will also studyengineering, but she isn't sure which school she'll attend just yet.

"I think no matter what someone is interested in, there's a place for them here," she said, referring to the opportunities to work on the team's social media, marketing to sponsors and donors and other aspects.

Bryce Neptune, a 16-year-old student from Central York High School, joined TechFire 225 two years ago after he heard about it through the grapevine and was hooked immediately. He said TechFire helped him break out of his shell and realize his dream of studying engineering at MIT.

"It helps you broaden your horizons and helps you refine skills," Bryce said.

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TechFire gears up for robotics competitions - York Dispatch

At the first competition, nothing went right.

The six members of the Mecha Hamster, a homeschool robotics team based in Greenwood, brought their robot out, but the robot was not performing like they needed it to.

They only had two chances to qualify for state. And in this one bad run, they were seeing their chances slip away, said Bethany Lengacher, a junior Mecha Hamster member.

Jonah Roleson,15 and Ivy Rimer, 15, work on the computer side of building a robot. The Greenwood high school robotics team is seen working on their robots at the school Wednesday February 15, 2017.Rob Goebel / Daily Journal

Ethan Pine, 17 oversees work on a robot. The Greenwood high school robotics team is seen working on their robots at the school Wednesday February 15, 2017.Rob Goebel / Daily Journal

Mentor Ronald Clites, Greenwood, an employee of Honda Manufacturing works with Collin Graber, 17. The Greenwood high school robotics team is seen working on their robots at the school Wednesday February 15, 2017.Rob Goebel / Daily Journal

Chris Ashmore, 17 and Collin Graber, 17 work on a robot. The Greenwood high school robotics team is seen working on their robots at the school Wednesday February 15, 2017.Rob Goebel / Daily Journal

Jonathan Schoeiter, 15, files down some metal as he works on a project for the team. The Greenwood high school robotics team is seen working on their robots at the school Wednesday February 15, 2017.Rob Goebel / Daily Journal

Mentor Ronald Clites, Greenwood, an employee of Honda Manufacturing works with Collin Graber, 17 and Isaac Welliver, 17. The Greenwood high school robotics team is seen working on their robots at the school Wednesday February 15, 2017.Rob Goebel / Daily Journal

Collin Graber, 17 works on a robot. The Greenwood high school robotics team is seen working on their robots at the school Wednesday February 15, 2017.Rob Goebel / Daily Journal

After their disastrous run at their first competition, they sat down and discussed what they would do with the month between competitions.

The group decided to soldier on and have now not only made it to state, but, in their last competition, qualified for the Super Regional.

The Green Machine team based out of Greenwood Community High School also earned a bid to state, as did teams from the middle schools at Center Grove.

Teams have to place among the top teams at several events across the state in order earn bids to state. All teams registered in the event received the task in September and had to build their robot from scratch to compete against other teams. They will compete this weekend.

After the Mecha Hamsters first run, they knew something had to change, Lengacher said.

They built their robot to concentrate on the autonomous portion of the competition. More points could be earned during the first 30 seconds of the competition, where student engineers program their robot to do a task on their own.

That strategy is what the Green Machine at Greenwood Community High School used too, junior Collin Graber said.

In this years game, you can score a lot of points in 30 seconds, he said. You can perform a lot of tasks during that autonomous period.

This strategy helped the Mecha Hamsters at their second competition until an internal hardware system on the phone strapped to their robot malfunctioned, making them lose a run in that first competition.

We were totally demolished in competition, she said.

Then a team they were aligned with did really well. And when their engineering notebook was handed over to judges, they were able to see how they fixed their bad runs and the internal thinking that went into fixing their robot.

Based off of that, they were awarded the Inspire Award, which not only earned them an automatic bid to state, but will allow them to compete in the Super Regional, Lengacher said.

Now they are focusing their efforts on making sure that another issue such as what happened at their competitions doesnt happen again, she said.

Greenwood Community High School robotic team members have upped the amount of practice they have been doing to get ready for state competition, said Chris Campbell, adviser to the Green Machine.

Members of the Green Machine received their instructions for the project last fall, along with other teams competing, he said.

Students then built their robot from scratch, using a bin of parts, Campbell said. Members typically get their task and immediately try to build a robot that will earn points in what the team believes is the best way possible, he said.

It is problem solving, they have to figure it out and sketch ideas, said Campbell.

At a glance

Here is a look at two robotics teams going to state this weekend.

Green Machine from Greenwood Community High School.

Members:

Brandon Albin, Tatiana Andrade, Chris Ashmore, Cameron Beach, Collin Graber, Micah Hoffman, Braxton Laster, Paul Lungaard, Ethan Pine, Evan Pine, Ivy Rimer, Jonah Roleson, Hunter Ross, Jonathan Schleiter, Edward Simpson, Alex Vuong, John Waldschmidt and Isaac Welliver.

Mecha Hamster, homeschool team based in Greenwood

Jake Lengacher, Claire Alte, Cole Nemeth and Bethany Lengacher, Laura Fundenberger and Nathan Bryan.

Excerpt from:

Homeschool robotics team among those headed to state - Daily Journal

MORAVIA The Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot that eighth-grade student Tanner Jones and his group members worked on at Moravia Middle School didn't quite operate the way they hoped.

The group was in the middle of the robotics portion of an all-day Mars colony-themed event Thursday that involved the school's entire eighth-grade class. The robot was supposed to move across a mat serving as a "map" of the red planet with various locations laid out, such as an underground base and turn right at one point to get to another location.

"Turn, turn, turn," Jones said as the machine, instead, moved forward.

Although it didn't work out the way he and the team wanted, Jones explained why he still enjoyed programming the robot.

"Mainly because it puts my mind to a test and makes me think," Jones said.

The robotics was a part of a school event looking at how people could conceivably exist on Mars. The robotics aspect was meant to reflect how scientists could use large machines to explore the planet's landscape. The entire eighth-grade class participates in these problem-based projects every year; students were split into twelve groups of six.

Four months of preparation went into the day's event. It focused on three main challenges: The various colony groups had to show how well their Lego Mindstorm units worked, they had to demonstrate their communication skills and teamwork abilities by coming up with solutions to a problem within a few minutes, and they had to present their proposal to a panel of actual experts, such as Tony Abbatiello, Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES director of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and Chris Petrella of the technology and defense company Lockheed Martin.

Middle school Principal Bruce MacBain said although the school has "extremely high expectations," in his own words, for students, he believes they displayed the culmination of all of their hard work despite any anxieties they may have had about the event.

"This is nerve-wracking for them, but it's also a celebration of 'Wow, I know a lot of stuff,'" MacBain said.

MacBain was proud of the children for their ability to present their ideas and proposals to accomplished professionals they had never met.

"I'm sorry, but that's a little daunting for a 13-year-old," MacBain said.

Derek Newton, one of the group members in a team of students, was hunched back slightly while his group presented its results including what government they chose and what kind of foods they would grow yet he spoke calmly, with no stammered words or prolonged pauses between his sentences.

Newton said he was rattled while presenting at first, thinking that his voice was far too loud as it carried through the library.

"Then I realized I wasn't talking too loudly, it was just really quiet," Newton said with a smile.

Preparation leading up to the event included a three-week "robotics boot camp" where students built and programmed their robots, used a 3-D printer, ventured to Cornell Universityand Skyped with Dr. Scott Guzewich, a research astrophysicist and planetary scientist with NASA.

Each learner had to work on a different part of their "colony." With government, students had to choose a system the colony would operate under. Those working in architecture had to design the colony's structures. In botany, students focusedon how aquaponics and hydroponics could be utilized to create sustainable food. And working in the media branch entailed enticing people to join the students' colony through videos and brochures.

Teacher Megan Newhouse said these grade-wide projects help students work on skills often sought by employers, such as teamwork and delivering constructive criticism. She said that while students have struggled a bit with some of the collaborative work, the teachers did keep in mind that their expectations are high and the students are still in eighth-grade.

Newhouse said these challenges were part of a shift in focus on "student-centered learning" instead of "teacher-centered learning."

"So instead of me standing in front of a classroom and saying, 'Memorize these 10 facts,' it's, 'You're living on Mars, what do you need to know and why?'" Newhouse said.

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Lego lessons: Moravia students use robotics at Mars colony-themed event - Auburn Citizen

Tuesday, 21 February 2017 20:47 GMT By Stephany Nunneley

If Doomfist isnt the next Overwatch hero, maybe 11-year-old robotics prodigy Efi Oladele can provide us with some sort of hint.

In the latest blog entry on the Overwatch website, an in-universe interview with Numbani native Efi Oladele has been posted.

According to the post (thanks PC Gamer), Efi Oladele won a genius grant from the Adawe Foundation for her work in artificial intelligence and robotics.

In the interview, Efi discusses how she became obsessed with creating small drones after receiving her first robotics kit. In the future, her goal is to build something that can keep us safe, like the new OR15, and as far as how shes going to use the grant money, its secret for now, but she is taking a trip to celebrate her achievement first. And it will be her first time flying. We can only assume she will fly somewhere outside if the current Numbani locations in the game, but you never know with Blizzard.

Also, what is the OR15? Speculation is running all over the place on that end, but one interesting theory pointed out by reddit user andygb4 is rather intriguing.

As he points out, the third Doomfist in the poster which was shown in the original Overwatch cinematic has Omnic text underneath instead of the normal font on the other two.

Maybe she builds a robot that eventually becomes Doomfist?, he suggests.

If you arent familiar with Overwtach lore, an Omnic is a type of robot with artificial intelligence both are subjects Efi seems to have plenty of knowledge on. Omnics were originally designed and built by humans, mostly notably the Omnica Corporation, to serve the economy. Eventually, the Omnic Crisis occurred when the machines became infected by God Programs, developed militarized Omnics of themselves and started attacking humans (see Overwatch wiki link above).

Numbani, where Efi lives, is one of the few places in the Overwatch universe where omnics and humans live in harmony and equality. Formed after the Omnic Crisis, its one of the worlds greatest and most technologically advanced cities. This is also where as part the Unity Day festivities, the gauntlet of Doomfist is exhibited at the Numbani Heritage Museum.

So. Even though the 24th hero coming to Overwatch is apparently not Doomfist, unless Blizzard is messing with us, its quite possible Efi may have something to do with his story, or will possibly introduce some sort of new Omnic hero into the game. Or, she could transform into a hero or even be the hero. Only Blizzard knows.

Were just speculating on all of this obviously. Hopefully, well know more soon.

See the article here:

Overwatch in-universe interview with robotics genius Efi Oladele may provide hints to next hero - VG247