Robotics offers fun, challenges, and looks good on a resume

From now until March, the top subject on Blue Valley High School senior Jackson Cwach’s mind will be robots.

He is part of a team of students from three Blue Valley high schools that will compete in the international For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition.

“It devours your life,” Jackson said. “It isn’t that it is so demanding, it is just so fun you don’t want to leave.”

Students will work toward the goal of creating a robot able to make soccer goals, drive over obstacles and climb seven-foot towers.

Teams from every Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley high school and Olathe Northwest High School joined in the competitive building process that kicked off Jan. 9.

Robotics was founded by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, more than 20 years ago. A main goal in creating the program was to “inspire young people to be science and technology leaders,” according to the FIRST Web site.

The program could also help build a stronger work force, said Blue Valley High School robotics coach Trevor Sutcliffe.

“The country is in desperate need of engineers, whether it is to fix the environment or road systems,” Sutcliffe said. “If we don’t have anyone to work on it we’d be in tough shape.”

As part of the program, competitors gain help from professional mentors.

Chris Locke, a software engineer at Garmin International, is one of 15 individuals from the company who serve as mentors locally. He calls FIRST “the greatest thing ever” for high school students. It helps students who often do not know what they want to study in college, and gives a head start on training for careers, he said.

“The major issue at Garmin is finding qualified students that come up through the education system,” Locke said. “I really feel like the well is running dry a bit.”

In addition to building the robot, FIRST competitors must raise funds, brainstorm and manage their time in order to be successful, said Wendy Thill, Shawnee Mission director of career and technical education.

“It makes it seem like it is kind of an impossible job, so they all go to work and spend a lot of hours,” Thill said.

Locke is aware of one employee at Garmin who participated in FIRST as a student, and he expects that number to grow.

Most Johnson County schools started competing in the past five years.

“It is growing. It reaches the interior of the country slower than the rest of the country,” Locke said. “(FIRST) experience is hugely valuable.”

Locke tells the students that an employment candidate with a 3.8 GPA who has FIRST robotic experience, would likely be a more attractive candidate than one that could only tout a perfect GPA.

“It is practical knowledge and the ability to hit the ground running,” Locke said.

Students show off their final product in an arena-sport-like atmosphere. Competitions are known for their thumping sound systems and cheering crowds.

“It’s like a Chiefs game with robots,” Sutcliffe said.

FIRST is designed to draw students who hold a variety of academic interests, in order to add to the creativity of robots, Blue Valley High School senior Rachel Contess said.

“A lot of people look at it think ‘oh, they’re just super nerds’” Rachel said. “But, it is nothing like that. You can be interested in anything, numbers or music, and you can apply that.”

Olathe Northwest 2009 graduate Hans Walther obtained one of 12 SELF Engineering Leadership Fellowships in the University of Kansas School of Engineering last year.

“(FIRST) is probably one of the biggest things that helped me in getting this scholarship,” Walther said.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (1)

Write comment