Robotic Adventures at the FIRST Competition

Popular Science attends New York's high-school robot showdown and sees celebrities, breakdowns, and mechanical lunacy

By Paul Gleason Posted 03.25.2009 at 9:06 am 8 Comments

The Staten Island Robotic Plague loads its hopper with moon rocks: Paul Gleason

Day Three

The qualifying rounds end on Sunday morning, March 8, shortly before noon. It's time to select alliances for the tournament. Representatives from the top eight teams process onto the playing field, around which the rest of the captains stand in a horseshoe formation.

Over the past two days, students not working in the pit or piloting a robot have sat in the bleachers and taken notes. They tallied points scored by each robot, points scored against each robot, sometimes even points scored by the payload specialist lobbing moon rocks from the sidelines. Simon Strauss explains that many experienced schools, including his own Bronx Science, already know which teams they work well with. Teams often cut deals in advance and have some idea of what alliance they'll end up on.

The bouncy MC has already gone over the rules: as in the qualifiers, each alliance will have three teams. That means each team gets two picks. The first-place team can take any team it likes, including one of the other top eight teams. But those teams can decline the invitation if they'd prefer to build their own alliances. The captains in the horseshoe, however, can't decline. If they do, they can't accept another offer; they have to sit out entirely. First place wins a spot in the national tournament in the Georgia Dome. Another spot goes to the winner of the competition's highest honor, the Chairman's Award. This is an all-around award for engineering, community outreach, encouraging students to choose careers in the sciences, and so forth.

The selection begins with Staten Island's Robotic Plague, who went undefeated in the qualifying rounds. They pick New Jersey's Team Overdrive, the home schooled team, who finished ninth. In second place, from Yonkers, the Saunders Droid Factory picks the Bronx Science SciBorgs, who graciously accept. Things turn ugly when the next team, the Harlem Knights, picks Stuyvesant. Stuyvesant turns them down. They finished eighth, so it's within their rights, but the crowd doesn't like it. Flustered, the boy from Frederick Douglass Academy picks the fourth place team, Bound Brook High School from New Jersey. They turn him down, too. The crowd likes this even less. (The Knights settle for a team in the outer horseshoe.) Now it's Bound Brook's turn. They pick the SciBorgs, only to be told that Bronx Science is already on a team. The crowd hoots loudly, glad to see Bound Brook get some comeuppance. The RoboWarriors, after a disappointing morning, are in the outer ring. It looks like they might not make the tournament at all until, with the second-to-last pick, the Harlem Knights bring them in.

Hauppauge isn't chosen; their tournament is over. During the coming week, says Nolan Conway, his team will find a way for its robot to move moon rocks from the ground to its hopper. (In other words, they plan to convert their defensive robot into a more aggressive one.)

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8 Comments

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gianthornet

03/26/09 at 12:06 pm

When will these robots benefits the human race? It does not focus at the impending catastrophes we're experiencing right now.

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robowarriors

03/26/09 at 7:25 pm

"When will these robots benefits the human race? It does not focus at the impending catastrophes we're experiencing right now."

I don't know if you are unfamiliar, but this is a program for high school students, not adults. These students who had no interest or even knowledge of engineering (I can speak for myself and dozens of others) suddenly became captivated through this competition, and even though our robot may not be navigating Mars or protecting our country, in 10 years, something that I create, inspired by this program, may be doing just that. This is about building massive interest in the science and engineering fields. Its already too late to convince the current work force to do this, so FIRST is making a huge investment in the future.

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dgraves702

03/27/09 at 12:58 am

"When will these robots benefits the human race? It does not focus at the impending catastrophes we're experiencing right now."

I'm sorry, but since when were HIGH SCHOOL Students being counted on to save the world? This program is for high school students to get them interested in Math and Science and encourage them to go into engineering. I am right with robowarriors here. As a former student in these competitions and now as a mentor who came back to FIRST after going to college and getting my Engineering degree, I see the success of this program every single day. These robots were all designed and built in SIX WEEKS. My team recently came to my job for a demonstration, and engineers with 30 years of experience were shocked at the amount of knowledge that these kids have and the fact that they are able to design and build a robot practically from scratch in only six weeks. On a more personal note, my own participation in FIRST led me into engineering and definitely helped me prepare for both college and the Engineering Industry.

Our country lags far behind other countries in terms of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education, and FIRST, which has programs aimed at Middle School ages and even younger, is helping to close that gap.

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david01

03/29/09 at 3:37 pm

FIRST is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved. It may not directly address the issues our world faces, but it equips students with the skills they need to excel in their future endeavors. Furthermore, they have fun doing it. I hope FIRST robotics continues to grow and have success.

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esherk

05/18/09 at 7:01 pm

Having been involved with FIRST both as a mentor for an FRC (High School robotics) team for 4 years and as a coach for an FLL team (Junior High school Lego robotics) for 5 years I can assure you that the FIRST organization does focus on critical problems facing us.

FLL is VERY focused on real problems and the kids learn a LOT. In addition to the "robot game", the kids do research and are expected to think of a solution to a (local) problem and then SHARE that with their community. Trust me, that is challenging and rewarding. I encourage you to check out previous years' challenges (focusing on climate, energy, etc), I know you'll find a lot of substance there. This coming season, the "puzzle" involves transportation and its challenges.

At the high school level, the focus is on learning/exposure AND on bringing that impact to others. The key here is that they gain a real hands-on appreciation for science and technology, work side-by-side with practicing engineers and scientists, and then help bring that experience to others. It is in the sparking of their creative and technical interests that we can help seed their future impact on the world.

The intangibles they all learn are perhaps even more important. Teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving, dealing with adversity, and "coopertition" (although there is a "winner" no one loses).

I invite you to find a local team and get involved. If one doesn't exist, start one! It is incredibly rewarding. And, you can help make the very impact you seek! These are the future scientists that will help solve these problems.

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dwatts1

05/21/09 at 6:02 pm

Man, I wish they had this when I was growing up... Very interesting article and congratulations to all of those involved!

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quasi44

10/02/09 at 5:14 pm

I'm glad it's here for my kids.

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romaniamac1

10/21/09 at 5:04 am

poker robots can even play poker nowadays -> www.pokerbot-smart.com