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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| Robot builders and fans gather around a timed obstacle course to cheer for their favorite robot last week at the Claremont Robotics Competition. |
Metal versus metal, college versus high school
Laser-powered robots were spotted last week racing around at the Claremont Colleges. It was not the filming of a science fiction movie but a new competition aimed at strengthening local students’ skills in science, math, engineering and technology.
Eight groups of students from Claremont schools teamed up to take part in the first annual Claremont Robotics Competition at Claremont Graduate University last week. After months of meetings, fine-tuning and trial-and-error runs, the computer-programmed robots were put to the test to see which machine would capture the top prize.
Built to look like remote control trucks, the robots competed in 2 different challenges. One had the robots race from one length of the table to the other, spin around 180 degrees and race back.
The second competition had the robots follow lines of black tape on the tables. Using laser technology, the robots followed the strips of tape from start to finish, forced to make sharp turns along the way.
Teams picked up points for how fast they completed the races, display board designs and robot design and programming.
“You need a lot of patience,” said Brian Bister, a junior at Claremont High School who was team captain for Sonic Ram Page. “But we had a lot of fun. The toughest part was definitely the programming. There was a lot of trial and error to get things right.”
Students from grades 5 through 12 were allowed to compete, with older students taking leadership positions in groups. Starting off in January, the teams met several times to design, program and construct the robots and write up reports of their progress. (story continues below)
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COURIER photo/Gabriel Fenoy
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| A laser-powered robot vehicle is put to the test on a timed obstacle course. |
The competition was started after Claremont High School was not invited to take part in this year’s Solar Cup competition, where students build solar-powered boats to be raced against teams from various southern California high schools.
School administrators wanted to create an alternative competition that would stimulate their passion for science and technology.
“The students were really disappointed [about the Solar Cup],” said June Hilton, assistant principal of Claremont High School. “They were excited about getting better this year after doing so well before.”
Along with her husband Brian Hilton, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, the pair came up with the robotics competition as an appropriate substitute.
“It’s a good lesson in mentoring,” Dr. Hilton said. “The older students can be leaders and advise the younger ones and they learn how to work together in team settings.”
The event was made possible with the combined efforts of officials at Claremont schools and the Claremont Colleges. Hosted at Claremont Graduate University, judges came from Harvey Mudd College and volunteer parents and teachers from the schools acted as mentors to the groups.
“It builds a lot of skills—leadership, team responsibility, listening to ideas of others, problem solving,” Ms. Hilton said. “It allows them to excel in a lot of areas. Hopefully it will prepare them for real world problems and teach them how to produce a good product.
“We want to kindle a passion for math and science in them that may lead them to pursue careers in these fields,” she added.
—Tony Krickl
