Category Archives: Robotics

COLUMBIA Columbias robotics team, Army Ants Team 3792, is headed to the world championship in Houston because of their work toward diversity and inclusion.

The FIRST Championship is in Houston and set for April 20-23.

The team qualified by winning the Chairman's award in St. Louis, which celebrates outreach inclusive efforts. The captain, Luke Sabath, joined through outreach programs.

We want to make sure everybody gets the opportunity to do what we are doing, Sabath said. We want to make it accessible to everybody."

Sabath said it is rewarding being able to expose kids to robotics.

We work with underserved communities, Sabath said. We are the ones allowing them to develop these skills to help them in the future with STEM.

The team consists of 40 students from local high schools and homeschool. According to the teams website, the team is 47% students of color and 43% female and non-binary identifying students. All 40 team members can attend the event.

We allow everyone from the team to come because it is an awesome experience, Sabath said.

To tackle the financial aspect and make it more accessible for the team members, the team started a GoFundMe page.

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Some students will have classes or AP Tests, so they will not be able to come. But, for the ones that can, we want them to, Sabath said.

Zihao Zhou is vice captain and on the drive team where he operates the robot. Zhou said there are many benefits to having such a diverse team.

We try to make it everyone in the district can access the opportunity especially those who have traditionally felt that they are not as welcome in these environments, Zhou said.

Mentors help guide the students, but it is rare that mentors will be holding the robots.

Were able to get everything working without the help of professionals and improve based on what we did all by ourselves, Zhou said.

The Army Ants qualified for the competition the last four years, but due to COVID, the team was not able to attend in 2020 or 2021. Sabath said it feels good to be back.

In 2021, the full season was almost all online Sabath said. When we walked back into St. Louis, it was like Yes were back, we made it."

The teams robot created this year can shoot balls into a hoop and climb a wooden hanger.

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Columbia robotics team heads to world championship in Houston - KOMU 8

The proportion of airport equipment supply, product and services companies hiring for robotics related positions kept relatively steady in March 2022 compared with the equivalent month last year, with 8.8% of the companies included in our analysis recruiting for at least one such position.

This latest figure was higher than the 8.3% of companies who were hiring for robotics related jobs a year ago but a decrease compared to the figure of 16.9% in February 2022.

When it came to the rate of all job openings that were linked to robotics, related job postings dropped in March 2022, with 0.2% of newly posted job advertisements being linked to the topic.

This latest figure was the lowest monthly figure recorded in the past year and is the same as the 0.2% of newly advertised jobs that were linked to robotics in the equivalent month a year ago.

Robotics is one of the topics that GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, have identified as being a key disruptive force facing companies in the coming years. Companies that excel and invest in these areas now are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

Our analysis of the data shows that airport equipment supply, product and services companies are currently hiring for robotics jobs at a rate lower than the average for all companies within GlobalData's job analytics database. The average among all companies stood at 0.5% in March 2022.

GlobalData's job analytics database tracks the daily hiring patterns of thousands of companies across the world, drawing in jobs as they're posted and tagging them with additional layers of data on everything from the seniority of each position to whether a job is linked to wider industry trends.

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Robotics hiring levels in the airport industry rose in March 2022 - Airport Technology

ALBANY The Albany High School robotics team and their bot got a festive send-off at the National Grid headquarters in downtown Albany on Wednesday ahead of their trip to Houston.

The Falcons team and their creation, "Rein," are headed to the three-day FIRST Robotics World Championship at the end of May.

National Grid directors congratulated the students and presented the team with a $35,000 check and a cake at Wednesday's event.

After winning the regional competition, the club had less than a month to figure out travel and hotel costs not to mention how to transport a 120-pound robot across the country. Shipping it was too risky given the unpredictability of postal delivery.

Between National Grid, community donations and funds from the school district, the team raised nearly $100,000, more than double their $46,500 fundraising goal, in a week.

High school senior Alison Powell's parents volunteered to drive the team's creation on a pickup truck from Albany to Houston.

"Having it driven down is the best way to ensure that it makes it there in one piece and it's functional for the competition," Powell said.

Jacob Ennis, a National Grid gas field operations supervisor, has mentored the robotics team for the last eight years.

"I thought they would make it," Ennis said. "Albany High is always kind of scrappy when it comes to funding for the team and we always find a way to pull it out."

Rein pulled off some fancy maneuvers for the National Grid staff Wednesday. Its 360-degree swerve drive technology enables Rein to move faster and smoother in any direction in comparison to the tank-style robots the team has built in previous years. LED lights flash red, blue, and green to let the operator know how many balls it is holding.

Rein tossed balls into a trash can. At the upcoming competition, the robot will shoot balls into a net that is 8 feet tall.

During the regionals last month, the students identified some weaknesses in the robot. Then the brakes malfunctioned and the tire treads wore out. But the new-and-improved Rein is ready to compete, they said.

"I have taken it apart and remade it more times than I can count," senior Dorothy Sperry said.

According to Robotics Club president Thor Hammer, coming up with the concept was a team effort.

"We all have a brainstorming day and collectively the entire team comes up with ideas for the robot and then we narrowed down the options," he said.

Albany Superintendent Kaweeda Adams thanked National Grid for the generous contribution and for its ongoing support for the Falcons team.

"Truly the inspiration for everything that we do, you are looking at it right here," Adams said Wednesday. "This is what motivates me every single day. These are the people who motivate me to get up at 4:30 every single morning and last well until midnight ... this is the group that will be our engineers, our mathematicians, our doctors. All of these things that they are learning here within this STEM program is what will help us in the future as a community."

It is the second time the award-wining robotics team has made it to the nationals.The Falcons won the regional contest in 2018 and participated in the national championships in Detroit a destination less cost-prohibitive because it did not require airfare.

Sophia Lucarelli, the club's treasurer, said arranging hotel and airfare and meals for 17 students was an ordeal, but thanks to the community's support, they pulled it off.

"Especially during senior year, you want to go out with a bang ... I'm just really looking forward to going to Houston and I'm so happy," Lucarelli said.

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Albany High robotics team gets grand send-off for championships - Times Union

Meet Reggie, Spotbot robotic dog that calls Central High School home

Central High School was only one of two schools in the country to receive this robot dog designed by Boston Dynamics.

Michael Clevenger, Louisville Courier Journal

Reggie is not an average dog.

Central High School's "newest mascot," according to Jefferson County Public Schools,doesn't have fur, but itcan complete math equations. Itdoesn't have a tail, but soon it'll have a crane. It can't bark, but itcan hold a can.

Central is now just one of two schools in the country to own a Spotbota four-legged robot that can walk and sit, but also makea 3D mapof theschool and perform other tasks.

The robot is named Reggie and was designed by Boston Dynamics Engineering. It came with a $77,000 price tag, which was paid with federal grant funds, according toChristopher Brown, one of the coaches of the Louisville Centrons Robotics Team.

Reggie gives Central's STEM students a unique opportunity to develop programming and coding skills as the school's robotics team competes at events.

"The cool thing about this is it gives our kids an opportunity to just be above where everybody else is and have everybody catch up to them," Brown said.

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The robotic dog can create3D scale maps, using its camera to track locations in front of it. It can survey an area while being controlled from another location. It can report dataand even complete difficult math equations.

Of course, it's a dog, too it doesn't have fur, but Reggie can sit, run and act out other canine behavior.

The school is waiting for a mechanical arm that will be attached to the robot dog. That $60,000 addition willl be acquired on a loan from the company to help Central develop a robotics curriculum that other schools can later use. This add-on will help Reggie perform more tricks, like pickingup objects.

These tricks were put on displayin a recentSamuel Adams commercialshown on Super Bowl Sunday, where the Spotbotwas featured holding cans of beer.

Brown said amid an ongoing labor shortage, robots like Reggie can help supply the demand for workers and help businesses.

Brown, who has taught at Central for 15 years, said his students will tour other schools and businesses to showcase the robot's skills and the work done by the robotics team.

Students like Bismah Rana, Gia Patel, and Jayel Boyd plan to showcase this work on their college applications. They are all juniors at Central and helped with Reggie's coding and programming as part of a team of more than a dozen students.

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Cyber engineering students will travel to Boston this month and tour the Boston Dynamics headquarters, along withHarvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They will meet the engineers that work with the Spotbotwhile they're in the city, Brown said.

There are somestereotypes of the West End, Brown said, that he hopes the robotics team's work can help put to rest.

"Central High School is a great place to be, it's a great place to teach, is a great place to work," he said. "To have this opportunity for our kids is amazing."

Reach Ana Roco lvarez Brez at abrinez@gannett.com; follow her on Twitter at @SoyAnaAlvarez

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'This will put them ahead of the game': New robotic dog gives JCPS school rare opportunity - Courier Journal

Another robotics firm is coming to Pittsburgh.

San Antonio-based Plus One Robotics announced that it would expand into the Avenu: Meyran space in the Pittsburgh Innovation District in May. The news comes after another growing robotics company, Neuraville, also announced an expansion to the innovation district and after Avenu announced the opening of the new Meyran location last month.

Nearly a year ago, Plus One Robotics announced a $33 million Series B round to fund international expansion. The goal was to meet increased demand for computer vision software for robotics in industries relying on warehouses and logistics. Founded in 2016, the company also raised $8.3 million in a Series A round in 2018, putting its total funding so far over $40 million.

Pittsburgh Innovation District is home to not one but two of the top-100 colleges in the United States. Being close to other startups in the District, plus Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, was very important for us so we can situate ourselves in that high-energy, relevant, forward-looking and optimistic environment, said Bener Suay, senior developer for Plus One Robotics, in a statement. Our company is future-focused, industry-leading, and deeply knowledgeable in our field. We feel that these pillars are very much aligned with our neighbors in the Pittsburgh Innovation District.

Plus Ones software uses 3D and AI-powered perception tools to give robots increased coordination capabilities, including hand-eye coordination relevant to placement and sorting tasks required by warehouse and distribution center settings. Most recently, a press release noted, the company has branched into leveraging its software for depalletization capabilities, specifically looking to improve the computer vision for that feature using its Pittsburgh-based talent.

As someone with experience in material handling robots, I have a great deal of respect for Plus One Robotics. Having them come to Pittsburgh is a big deal and we welcome them to the community, Pittsburgh Robotics Network (PRN) Executive Director Joel Reed said. Pittsburgh is a world leader in research, innovation and commercial development for the robotics industry and is increasingly becoming the place to be if youre developing AI-driven autonomous and robotics solutions.

Plus Ones choice to expand to Pittsburgh next in its company journey also strengthens the conviction of Reed and PRNs claim last summer that the region is the robotics capital of the world. Its a sign that local business within that sector continues to grow beyond the realm of autonomous vehicles and leverage Pittsburghs robotics and AI expertise toward more commercial opportunities.

Suay and one of his colleagues, Senior Engineer Nick DePalma, said that the Pittsburgh Innovation District in particular will enable them to take advantage of all the benefits the city has to offer in robotics. With a growing number of businesses and access to CMU and Pitt, DePalm said he hopes Plus Ones new location will foster a sense of community with other innovators in Pittsburgh.

And it sounds like Plus One is here to stay. While it will continue development of its computer vision software for new applications, Suay said one of the first goals after the move is expanding the team.

Within the next 1-3 years, we hope to see our company grow its customer, application, and employee footprint, he said. We are working tirelessly on solving critical problems in warehouses and distribution centers. We hope to see our efforts scale, hire more talent, and augment our customers capacity to achieve more picks per day.

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Plus One Robotics expands to the Pittsburgh Innovation District with plans to grow here long term - Technical.ly

Brinker International has partnered with Flytrex and Serve Robotics to test drone and sidewalk robot deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. Details are scant, but the Texas-based restaurant giant is including its Chilis and Maggianos Little Italy brick-and-mortar brands, as well as its Its Just Wings and Maggianos Italian Classics virtual concepts in the projects.

In an email to Food On Demand, Brinker said it wasnt prepared to share details about its future plans, but said it was very focused on the guest experience as we test our innovation efforts and work with Flytrex and Serve Robotics.

Israeli drone delivery provider, Flytrex, partnered with Brinker to launch its drone delivery service in Granbury, Texas, just outside of DFW. As part of the deal, Flytrex will expand its partnership with Chilis and Maggianos Little Italy, as well as the companys virtual brands, to deliver orders in the suburban market with a flight time of five minutes or less.

The service will operate in cooperation with longtime partner Causey Aviation Unmanned under a newly granted Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver allowing a delivery radius of one nautical milereaching thousands of potential homes. Eligible households that have opted into the service can order food via the Flytrex app.

Were thrilled to be soaring into the Lone Star Statean outsized achievement for ultra-fast home delivery, said Yariv Bash, CEO and cofounder of Flytrex. After establishing drone delivery as a preferred option in North Carolina, we are excited to bring our unrivaled speed and convenience to Texas, where big things happen. We look forward to bringing drone delivery to backyards across the U.S. as we expand our service nationwide.

Dallas Innovates, a local tech-focused publication, said Brinker is also testing the Bear Robotics Rita table service bots at Chilis locations in the Dallas area, in addition to its work with Flytrex and Serve Robotics.

For Flytrex, this launch follows a series of additional milestones. Most recently, the drone delivery company received a waiver from the FAA enabling it to expand delivery service to 10,000 homes in cities across North Carolina as North Carolina Department of Transportations partner in the FAAs BEYOND program.

Flytrex has been operating in the First in Flight state since September 2020, beginning in Fayetteville, and expanding to the town of Raeford. In October 2021, Flytrex launched its third drone delivery station in North Carolina at the Holly Springs Towne Center, delivering food orders from Its Just Wings, to residents front and backyards. Flytrex has already completed thousands of drone deliveriesmore deliveries via drone than any other company in the U.S.conducting all operations while maintaining the highest safety standards.

As we continue to drive awareness and grow our virtual brand, Its Just Wings, we continue to explore and leverage technology and innovation, said Wade Allen, SVP, Innovation, Brinker International. With a focus on guest experience and conveniencealongside our killer wingsthis new outpost in partnership with Flytrex is another exciting step in the right direction.

While Dallas-Fort Worth is a big city with two downtowns, Flytrexs focus is on the suburbs. Although there are roughly 80 million homes in U.S. suburban areas, on-demand delivery has been largely seen as commercially unviable as traditional couriers are only able to make around two deliveries per hour in such areas. Flytrex says it is providing on-demand drone delivery directly to consumers homes in these underserved neighborhoods, offering a better, faster, more sustainable service at more affordable prices.

Since successfully launching the worlds first fully autonomous urban drone delivery system in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2017, Flytrex has played an integral role in getting drone delivery off the ground. Flytrex is working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, a lead participant in the FAAs BEYOND program, tackling the remaining challenges of UAS integration.

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Brinker Partners with Flytrex and Serve Robotics on Drone, Robot Deliveries - Food On Demand News

Pittsburghers seem reluctant to boast about something thats pretty significant the citys role as the birthplace of autonomous vehicles, says Joel Reed, executive director of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network. Or, maybe they just dont know about it.

When I was at IAM Robotics, more often than not, people associated with smart machines saw Pittsburgh as one of the top two regions for it in the world. In the U.S., theres Boston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco (including Silicon Valley), says Reed.

But that is not as well known in Pittsburgh.

The citys dominance in the field will certainly be a topic at a special event titled The State of Our Autonomous Vehicle Industry, on April 21 at the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side. The event will feature a keynote panel discussion, awards for contributions to the robotics industry and a VIP reception.

The gathering will also include the announcement of the Pittsburgh Robotics Cluster Profile, a document that focuses on the regions unique growth and opportunities in the robotics industry. The profile expands upon a report commissioned last year by the Regional Industrial Development Corporation called Forefront: Securing Pittsburghs Break-out Position in Autonomous Mobile Systems, which shows Pittsburghs powerful role in the autonomous vehicle sphere.

Aurora self-driving vehicles. Photo courtesy of Aurora.

That study estimates the direct employment of about 6,300 jobs in the autonomy sector in Western Pennsylvania, which generates an estimated $651 million in income, $34.7 million in state and local tax revenues, and $126.7 million in federal tax revenues. The industry also helped to create 8,604 full- or part-time indirect jobs, for a total of 14,923.

Thats not anywhere close to, say, banking or medicine in Pittsburghs economy. But its pretty good for a sector that barely existed 20 years ago.

Its growing, too. Last year, Waymo the self-driving vehicle operation affiliated with Google announced an expansion in Pittsburgh. Giants in the field such as Aurora and Argo AI have made Pittsburgh their headquarters, which anchors a lot of non-engineering jobs (that are crucial to growing the field) in the region.

That report shows that it has the potential to be a $10 billion market locally, says Reed.

William Red Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University will receive the Pittsburgh Robotics Impact Award at the event.

Dr. Whittakers commitment to robotics spans decades and his work pioneered autonomous vehicles, space robotics, sensing and perception, robotic manipulation and industrial robotics, and has even given rise to the entire discipline of field robotics, says Jennifer Apicella, program director at the Pittsburgh Robotics Network.

The event, hosted by the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, kicks off a bimonthly Industry Insights Speaker Series with local robotics industry experts. Tickets for the April 21 event are $20 and are available to the public.

Keynote panel speakers include:

autonomous vehiclesPittsburgh roboticsPittsburgh robotsRIDCrobotics

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Robotics industry will convene in Pittsburgh to explore how the city became a leader in autonomous vehicles - NEXTpittsburgh

Weve got robots that can skateboard, robots going to outer space, robots with human-like skin, and now robots that can inch around like an earthworm. Scientists at Stanford and the Ohio State University banded together to create an origami-inspired tiny robotic crawler that shuffles around just like a tiny worm and looks so absolutely adorable doing so.

But this robot has loftier goals than just looking cute and feeling cute. As explained in a new study published March 30 in the journal Science Advances, the researchers constructed their crawler with flexible cylindrical units and a magnetic field that work to propel the yellow and blue robot forward through the repetitive movement of folding and expanding on itself. The aim is to one day use the man-made earthworm for exploration in confined spaces impossible for humans to navigateespecially for diagnostic medical procedures or to store and release vital medications within the human body.

The researchers borrowed techniques from a particular origami design called the Kresling pattern. Its something you can actually make on your own: If you take a hollow tube of paper and crush it inward clockwise and again counterclockwise, youll end up with two spiral patterns going in opposite directions of each other. And its deceptively powerful: When the paper is folded and expanded, it generates torque to move the worm forward.

The actual folding and expanding of the robot is accomplished through magnets. The researchers created four units of short, origami-folded cylinders interspersed between four magnets (two at the crawlers ends and two sandwiched in-between). What happens next is similar to the motions of operating an accordion: The robotic crawler is then placed under a magnetic field that moves the magnets back and forth, causing the cylinders to move as well.

In trials, the little robot managed to inch forward in one direction, as well as move in a zig-zag and crawl in a circular path when the direction of the magnetic field was changed. The research team also showed the robots were capable of delivering drugs by having them carry pills that later dissolved in water.

Miniaturizing robotic crawlers is considered challengingit can be hard to engineer the movements just rightbut this proof-of-concept creates a platform for further discovery and innovation in robotics. The researchers hope to build off their findings to create a crawler that can move around with great precision in small and confined spaces when steered by a magnetic field. These robotic crawlers may very well be the next extraterrestrial explorers investigating beneath the surface of new planets. Maybe theyll show up during your next colonoscopy to take pictures and biopsy suspicious growths. The sky or rather, the space they can fit in, is the limit for these little guys.

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Origami Inspired Robotic Crawlers Invented by Stanford Scientists for Medical Procedures and Drug Delivery - The Daily Beast

HAMPTON, Va. - The FIRST Chesapeake Robotics Championships, sponsored by Newport News Shipbuilding, wrapped up Saturday at the Hampton Coliseum.

More than 2,000 middle and high school students from Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland competed for a chance to attend the FIRST World Robotics Championship in Houston, Texas.

In total, 140 robotics teams participated in the event.

This was the first large-scale championship in three years, according to a release from FIRST Chesapeake. To mark the occasion, the FIRST Tech Challenge District Championship was hosted in tandem with the FIRST Robotics Competition District Championship.

According to FIRST Chesapeake, 300 teams from around the region competed to participate in this event.

This is not like a science fair. It is a fast-paced sports-based competition. said Leighann Scott Boland, the executive director for FIRST Chesapeake. We are thrilled to be presenting these Championships in partnership with Newport News Shipbuilding. As the largest commercial manufacturer within the Commonwealth, they represent the pinnacle of technological advancement. We are so proud of what our students have accomplished and are pleased to share their hard work with the Hampton Roads community. Major corporations, including the Shipyard, tell us that FIRST experience is something they look for in their prospective employees.

Participants in FIRST programs also qualify to apply for more than $80 million in college scholarships.

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140 robotics teams from Virginia, Maryland, DC compete in largest-ever FIRST Chesapeake Robotics Championship - News 3 WTKR Norfolk

The half dozen teenagers surround the small robot named Sparrow, their hands immersed in an array of metal, wires and computer components as they wield wire strippers, screwdrivers and zip ties with looks of utter concentration.

They have about 24 hours to make sure Sparrow can gather supersize tennis balls off the floor and shoot them 8 feet in the air before demonstrating it can lift itself off the floor to hang from a metal rod and then, like a kid on monkey bars, swing to another higher up.

Sparrow is currently not moving. Its a cam problem, one student says, motioning to a wire gripped between his fingers as he explains in technical language what that means.

For the first time in two years, these Lowell High School students in San Francisco will face off in person against students from across California and other countries in the Silicon Valley Regional First Robotics Competition Saturday and Sunday.

It is, according to organizers, a varsity sport for the mind, combining the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology.

The program is one of countless efforts started in the past two decades to lure young people into the fields needed for the 21st century economy. STEM science, technology, engineering and math became educations battle cry, with policymakers and corporate America pouring money into K-12 recruitment efforts.

To some degree, the investment is working.

For many of the Lowell Robotics Club members and thousands like them across the Bay Area and the U.S., building a robot and being on the robotics team can be frustrating, fun and challenging. It can also have a major influence on who they become as adults, many opting as a result for STEM college majors and careers.

For companies looking to attract future technology and science workers, encouraging kids to build a prize-winning robot is arguably among the best baits. And for those hoping to create a generation of problem-solving adults undeterred by setbacks, a stubborn robot with a cam issue will likely do the trick as well.

Lowell robotics coach Bryan Cooley, a physics teacher, points to former club members now working at Space X and Tesla, among other high-tech places.

He also notes building the robot is only part of the experience. Students have to give presentations, raise money and participate in community events demonstrating the robot, as well as in public relations efforts.

A year of teaching physics cant do that, Cooley says.

In the hallway of Lowells science building, the robotics team members alternate between being nervous, worried and confident.

I really feel this is one of the best robots weve ever built, says Ivy Mahncke, a junior and co-president of the schools robotics club.

That said, were in Silicon Valley, she said, adding they face the best teams, which are mentored by NASA and tech company engineers. Were an underdog.

A previous design of Sparrows climbing mechanisms was scrapped because it wasnt cool enough, so they redesigned it, says sophomore Lucas Rosenthal-Jones. Is it cool enough now?

If it works it is, he says.

This group, like hundreds of high school robotics teams across the country, has been getting ready for competition for months, designing, building and testing their robot after school until 9 p.m. most nights and on weekends. In between they sleep, eat, attend classes and do homework which is sometimes turned in late because Sparrow is stubborn.

The goal is to get to the national championship, held later this month in Houston. The Lowell team has been five times in a dozen years and believes Sparrow has the wings to get there in 2022.

Many of the robotics club students at Lowell, a historically rigorous and competitive academic high school, said they plan to pursue a STEM major in college, including various engineering fields, medicine or economics.

Cole Lewis of Lowell High Schools robotics club joins fellow team members on April 6 as they prepare the teams competition robot Sparrow for its next competition.

The recruitment effort has worked to a degree, but gaps remain in terms of demand and supply, said Susan Hackwood, executive director of the California Council on Science and Technology.

Silicon Valley and the rest of California continue to import top talent to fill jobs in science and technology fields. And the need remains to recruit women and people of color into STEM fields, experts said.

Theres still a huge, huge, huge access and opportunity gap into robotics, to STEM, said Lisa Andrews, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, which works to increase that kind of access.

It needs to start with programs like clubs and competitions, where Black and brown students remain relatively rare, she said, including at Lowell.

Hackwood said she believes the pandemic could help reframe STEM education toward social justice and other emerging needs, potentially exciting a broader range of students. She already sees that trend among her own science and technology college students.

Students are no longer saying, How am I going to get a high paying job? said Hackwood, an electrical engineer professor. I have an enormous number of students using STEM knowledge to help policymakers make the right decisions.

At the same time, Amit Roy Chowdhury, a robotics professor at UC Riverside, said recruiting students into STEM isnt necessarily the problem. Its keeping them there.

Robotics and other STEM departments lose 50% of students admitted to these majors due to early courses in high-level math and computer programming required for a degree.

What robotics clubs generate is an interest in knowing more about these subjects, Chowdhury said. They do not convey the challenges students will face if they want to be a roboticist.

Back in the hallway at Lowell, the students are still focused on how to get Sparrow working.

They fret that so many things could go wrong with their robot. Parts break and humans are fallible. There was one year during a competition, they said, when someone forgot to plug the joysticks into the computer, leaving their robot motionless on the competition floor for a solid 90 seconds before they figured it out.

Everything that could go wrong goes wrong and then you fix it, Rosenthal-Jones says, shrugging. You can use robotics as a metaphor for life.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker

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Lowell Highs elite robotics team is racing to finish its robot. Can they make it to a high-stakes competition? - San Francisco Chronicle