Robotics Club trains future engineers

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Ed Nevrivy wants to be an aerospace engineer and has already built a rocket using hybrid fuel. Aaron Rogers plans to pursue a career in mechanical or electrical engineering. He created a remote-control submarine while still in junior high and now flies remote-control helicopters. Celeste Holcomb plans to study civil engineering or chemistry and is interested in building mass transit systems. Robby Geis wants to go into industrial design.

All of these highly motivated students at Poudre High School have one thing in common: They are members of the Alpine Robotics Club, which builds a robot each year for regional and national competition. The project gives them hands-on experience in design, engineering and electronics.

This year, the club has caught the attention of the nationally televised Newshour with Jim Lehrer, which will do a segment on the club and its robot later this spring. One of the show's producers also plans to create a 30-minute documentary featuring the club.

There are 22 young people in the club, including three girls. "It's not strictly a guy thing," said PHS shop teacher Gordon Smith, head coach for the robotics club for the past two years.

The group works for six intense weeks to design and build a robot that can perform the tasks laid out for the current year. In competition, there are alliances of robot teams, with six robots on the field at a time. This year's robot task is to throw foam balls into a goal, by sensing a light on the target.

The regional competition this year is at Denver University, March 31 and April 1. A total of 48 teams from Colorado and neighboring states are expected to compete. Nationals are set for late April in Atlanta, Ga. In 2002, the PHS club won the top award at the Pacific Northwest regional competition. With more than 300 teams competing at nationals, the students have a good opportunity to get ideas from other teams. They also learn that many different approaches can solve a given problem.

Good career prep

"I think this is the most powerful experience kids can go through if they're interested in engineering or another technical field," said Smith.

Club member Scott Peterson agrees. "You have to learn faster with a robot project," he said. Nevrivy pointed out that building a robot successfully builds up confidence and helps prepare students for college.

Smith's approach to the club is to let the young people take charge of the entire process. "It's these guys' deal, not mine," he said.

The project requires a wide variety of skills, including design, machining, assembly, programming, putting together electronic circuits, building a transmission and assembling pneumatics. Students learn from Smith and also from each other. "I've learned a lot about wiring in just a few weeks," commented Geis.

On the computer end, students must learn software such as Solid Works, a 3-D design program; and MasterCam, which sends instructions to a computer-driven mill for cutting out parts.

For this year's robot, students built two three-speed transmissions and used nine motors and 14 pneumatic cylinders.

There's some pretty impressive equipment in the PHS shop, and it all comes in handy during a robot build. To make sure the school district notices the value of this investment, the robotics club went before the Poudre School District board this year to lobby for more support of career education programs.

Expensive endeavor

Competing in robotics is very expensive, so fund-raising is another important job for Alpine Robotics members. The registration fee for regionals is $6,000 for the team, and competing at nationals costs another $5,000. Materials for the robot run about $2,000. To raise this money, students pot roses at Gulley's Greenhouse and recruit local sponsors.

Club members and their parents must also come up with about $650 each in travel costs, although the club chips in when a student cannot afford this expense.

In addition to the financial burden, robotics club members must make a big time commitment to the project. During the six-week build season, the group meets every Monday through Thursday, 4 to 8 p.m., plus Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During the week that the robot has to be finished and shipped off to regionals, nobody keeps track of the hours.

Both regional and national competitions are sponsored by the nonprofit organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Local sponsors this year for Alpine Robotics include LSI Logic, Colorado Iron and Metal, Berthoud Anodizing, Starbucks, Hewlett Packard, Gulley's Greenhouse and the Salimbeni and Geis families, all of whom help pay the club's competition fees.