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Robot Competition Tests Students' Metal

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By TOM BRENNAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 30, 2008

BRANDON - Goliath won.

But it took a runoff.

Throughout the preliminary competitions during a weeklong summer robotics workshop at Hillsborough Community College's Brandon campus, team Atomic Robo smoked its opponents.

Everyone assumed the dynamic duo Isaiah Diaz, 13, and Christian "Figment" Fogelman, 11, would do the same when it came to the finals.

The pair aced the first heat, setting the fastest time.

But title hopes dimmed when their robot failed to maneuver through a slalom where the robot's moves were controlled by the sound of clapping hands.

It appeared their opponents, team R.O.B., had pulled an upset. They weren't the fastest in either of two heats, but Chris Collins, 11, and Julion Price, 12, completed both and finished with the fastest combined time.

That's when organizers of the middle school summer camp decided to have a sudden-death elimination pitting R.O.B. and Atomic Robo against team Robochix - whose robot failed the clapping test in the first round but set the pace in the second.

Isaiah and Christian took advantage of their second chance, edging Robochix by three seconds and R.O.B. by five.

"It was very tense," Isaiah said. "And very surprising."

Like any classy competitor, Chris refused to blame the officials.

"I could have done a lot better," he said.

Serena Scott, 13, who partnered with Jina Roscoe, 13, on the Robochix team, also put a positive spin on the competition results.

"It was fun," she said. "I learned a lot about the stuff we had to do."

The workshop was sponsored by Florida Advanced Technological Education Center for Manufacturing Education at HCC's Brandon campus. Each year, the center orchestrates a program to give youngsters hands-on lessons in robotics, basic science and mathematics, hoping to open their eyes to potential industrial careers.

This year, workshop participants used Mindstorms robot kits made by Lego.

"It is amazing how quickly they learned how to program their robots, test them, rewrite the programs, troubleshoot it and then test again," said center director Eric Roe.

Most of this year's competitors were from Dowdell Middle School in Progress Village.

"Our students don't always get the opportunity to get this creative," said Allan Dyer, a science teacher at Dowdell who helped recruit students and taught at the workshop. "This group has potential we're not really tapping in the normal structured classroom environment."

The robots look like oversized calculators riding backward on tricycles. They had multiple appendages - gears, sensors, black boxes and cable bundles.

Many of the components came preassembled.

"We didn't want them to focus on building it, but how to program it to perform the necessary functions," said Eric Fernandez, a teacher at Terrace Community Middle School in Thonotosassa who assisted at the workshop.

The 20 students were divided into 10 teams. They had to install sensors and actuators, which signal the robots to move, then calibrate and compute the devices' operating skills.

The robots also had rotation, infrared and sound sensors to control movement, and switches to let students toggle between functions.

A maze was laid out in blue painters' tape on a laboratory floor. Inverted water bottles served as walls and crash barriers.

Teams were directed to calculate distances and program and tune their robots to proceed forward, turn right, move forward again and then turn left.

The next task was to get the robots to use light sensors to follow a squiggly line without tipping over or veering off course.

In the next leg of the competition, students had to make their robots advance, turn right, advance, turn left and advance using sound sensors triggered by clapping hands. The sensors were so sensitive that the peal of afternoon thunder forced one robot into an errant trajectory. The team got to run the course again.

The final task was a test of maneuverability, using measured distances to see how close the robots could get to a wood strip without knocking over the water bottles.

Jina's mother, Helene Keever of Gibsonton, said she hoped the class would help fill in some academic gaps.

"Science is one of her weak points, even though she is an honor student," Keever said. "I hope this gets her more interested in science and technology and hopefully pick up something for the future."

Jina hopes to be a writer, but she thought the techno workshop was just fine.

"I thought it would be more fun and something out of the ordinary for me," she said.

Tametryce Collins of Plant City, a psychology professor at HCC, thought the workshop would be a useful new experience for her son, William.

"I wanted something different," Collins said. "Normally, we attend sports camps and reading camps. I wanted to expose him to something new and find something he now enjoys doing."

William said his "special dream" is still to play forward in the NBA. But he has three plan B's - pilot, plumber or robot engineer.

"I wanted to learn about robots. I saw them on TV," he said. "I learned a lot of stuff."

Whitney Scott of Seffner, Serena's mom, was pleased her daughter wanted to attend the workshop.

"She really enjoys science and robotics," she said.

Serena said she wants to become an ornithologist but jumped at the chance to go to the robot camp.

"Robotics seemed like something fun to do. I get bored during the summers anyway," she said.

Isaiah had a pragmatic assessment.

"I thought this would be a great opportunity," he said. "When I apply to college or for a job, I can put down I took this program. I can definitely use it in the future."

Reporter Tom Brennan can be reached at (813) 657-4528 or tbrennan@tampatrib.com.

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