Apple’s new and engaging iPhone feature, SIRI, has given a different dimension to the word robot. The engineering of this feature is no doubt complicated, but Ladue students are now able to scratch the surface behind building a robot with Ladue’s new engineering club, FIRST Robotics.
“I’m just hoping we build a team, the kids think its worth their while,” co-sponsor and science teacher Theodore Waterson said. “Honestly, I don’t really care how the robot does, I’m just looking for the students to have a worthwhile experience.”
FIRST Robotics is an international organization where high school students form teams, build robots and compete against each other at local, national, and international competitions.
“The whole idea of going to competitions and building robots that can do tasks appealed to me,” junior Ruth Abraha said. “I’ve never done anything like it before.”
Technology educator Stephen Schmidt and Waterson agreed to help start up Ladue’s division of FIRST Robotics after being asked by assistant superintendant, Donna Jahnke and principal Bridget Hermann. Monsanto is a major sponsor of FIRST Robotics in the St. Louis region and plans to provide students with the opportunity of collaborating with its engineers and scientists in building robots as well as helping fund the club.
“Monsanto is helping us with the cost of the materials,” Waterson said. “The idea of students working with professionals toward a common goal appealed to me. Not having to worry about fund raising was also appealing to me.”
FIRST Robotics competitions consist of teams given a standard set of parts and game details in the beginning of January and having students work on the robot up to competition dates. An objective that changes from year to year is given, and robots are scored on how well they accomplish this objective.
Specifics about the features of the robot also change from year to year but can never weigh more than 120 pounds and can not include batteries or bumpers. Robots also must operate independently in addition to wireless controls to accomplish their objective.
Several planned local competition dates include March 22-24 at Chaifetz Arena and April 26-28 at the Edward Jones Dome. Depending on progress made later in the year, there are also larger competitions in Chicago and Kansas City to which Ladue will send a team.
Meetings are scheduled to take place every Monday in October through December. These meetings will be used to discuss rules of competition, safety training, ordering parts and designing the robots. Second semester meetings will be much more frequent in preparation for various competitions and will take place every day after school in January and February.
“Second semester is when the club will get the basic parts and rules for the competition,” Schmidt said. “That’s when the build begins. We along with the other clubs from all over the world will have 6 weeks to build the robot for competition.” #
