South Florida students competing in robotics competitions
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| MAST Academy robotics team members Ian Hoek Spaans, 17, and Michelle Johnson, 16, demonstrate one of their robots at the school, Monday, May 09, 2011, in Miami. DANIEL BOCK / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD | |
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| MAST Academy robotics team member Daniel Regalado, 15, works on a project at the school, Monday, May 09, 2011, in Miami. DANIEL BOCK / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD |
Student David Green, 17, controls his team’s robot at Booker T. Washington High School, Friday, May 6, 2011, in Miami. Booker T. Washington started its robotics club three years ago and is now developing an engineering curriculum.
Sofia Gomez was determined to prove that her all-girls team could win a competition dominated by males.
“I really like beating the all-boy teams and seeing the looks of surprise on their faces,” said Sofia, 17, who for the past four years has been on a winning robotics team at the all-girls Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove.
For David Green, joining the inaugural robotics club at Booker T. Washington Senior High was a chance to get one step closer to his dream of becoming a mechanical engineer and design engines.
“I want to go to MIT and do big things,” said David, 17.
Apparently, so do a lot of other students, judging by the growth in high school robotics programs over the past five years. This year, 63 high schools in Florida competed in USFirst’s robotics competition in Orlando, up from 45 last year. USFirst is one of the largest competitions in the country.
“We’ve had huge growths in Florida the last few years,” said Charles Kennedy, the Florida director for USFirst. “Within the last year, there has been about a 30 to 40 percent increase statewide in robotics programs and about an 80 percent increase in South Florida high schools.”
With engineers in demand, high schools are using the programs to ramp up their math and science courses and design sophisticated machines that have real-world applications, from medical devices to water purification systems that have been used in Haiti.
“A lot of students have gotten really good engineering jobs across the country because of their background in robotics,” said Nola Garcia, CEO of BotsIQ, one of the major national robotics competitions. “Their ability to see a project go from an idea or thought to completion makes them much stronger candidates for colleges and employers.”
Most South Florida high school robotics programs participate in at least one of the three major robotics competitions: VEX Robotics, USFirst Robotics or BotsIQ’s BattleBots.
For the VEX Robotics competition, VEX provides all the necessary pieces to build the robot. The students have to put the robot together and program it to perform certain tasks, as part of the competition requires the robot to move autonomously.
At USFirst, the robots tend to be bigger in size, and the students must create a considerable portion of the robot from scratch. USFirst will hold its first national tournament in South Florida next March.
In the BotsIQ competition, students build robots that are designed to destroy others, much like in the popular television show Battlebots.
The competitions are like sports championships, with the students working around the clock in the days leading up to the big show.
“Last year, we spent 72 hours working on the robots over five days,” said John Miller, 18, a senior at North Miami Beach Senior who will attend the U.S. Air Force Academy this fall.
North Miami Beach has one of the oldest robotics programs in the county and recently has begun teaching computer-assisted design.
“By teaching the students these programs, they are acquiring skills that will make them more hirable,” said North Miami Beach teacher German Dulanto.
The school has been mentoring Booker T. Washington in Overtown, whose robotics team is only 3 years old. The school reopened its engineering department this year.
“They took us under their wing and provided a lot of support,” said Dickson Bidokwu, the Booker T. Washington teacher who steers the club’s 22 members.
This year, Booker T. participated in the USFirst competition for the first time. The club is also competing in FIU’s Wall of Wind competition, a contest that challenges students to think like structural engineers and come up with a design for high-rise buildings to withstand hurricane-force winds.
“We want to use it as a springboard for our engineering program,” said Bidokwu. “Next year we plan to put more emphasis on robotics within the curriculum as it is the way of the future.”
“We want people to know that Booker T. may be an inner-city school, but there are great things going on here.”
Several of South Florida’s private schools — Belen, Columbus, Gulliver and Ransom — work with Northwestern and Coral Park and other public schools as part of the “305 Consortium,” whose goal is to increase South Florida’s presence in robotics competitions.
The competitions can get intense.
“When you’re working on a project, you get so into it that you just can’t stop until it’s finished,” said Stephanie Rubin, 16, from Gulliver Preparatory School in Pinecrest.
Gulliver’s robotics club has created several medical devices, including a glove that helps people with arthritis lift objects and a telescopic arm for wheelchair users to pass through doors independently. A group of students in the club were inspired to help Haiti after the hurricanes hit few years ago and designed a machine to convert dirty water to clean drinking water. The machine worked and was sent to Haiti to help in recovery efforts.
South Florida schools have done well in the competitions.
This year, Ransom Everglades School in Coconut Grove took home first and second place in the 120-pound division of BotsIQ’s national Battlebots competition.
“It satisfies a basic human need to create something tangible,” said Robert DuBard, the science teacher who works with the Ransom students.
The appeal for the students is clear.
“You can be really creative,” said James Sawyer, 16, a Ransom student. “And come up with some really crazy ideas.”
Carrollton, the all-girls school, had teams that finished third and fourth in the same BattleBots competition.
“By the end of their high school careers, half of the graduating class will have been members of the robotics club at some point,” said Alan Crockwell, a teacher at the school for 34 years and who has worked with the robotics club since its inception 15 years ago.
Carrollton’s strong showing has brought more girls into the math and science courses, particularly AP courses.
“Three of our seniors got into MIT last year and a lot of them went to UM’s engineering school,” Crockwell said.
The University of Miami’s College of Engineering has a student body that is 26 percent female, which is higher than the national average of 19 percent, said Blythe Nobleman, director of communication for the College of Engineering.
Carrollton will offer robotics as an elective next year. Gulliver, meanwhile, will offer an advanced robotics course in the summer along with its engineering courses in the school year.
The MAST Academy on Key Biscayne participates in a robotics competition that have an aquatic twist. Along with competing in the First Tech Challenge and the Vex Robotics competition, MAST competed in the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) rover challenge, where the students were faced with a simulated oil spill and had to design an underwater robot capable of effectively contributing to recovery efforts.
“It gives the students an opportunity to practically apply what they learn in math and science classes,” said Melissa Fernandez, MAST Academy teacher mentor.
MAST’s club co-president Eric Wahl, 17, hopes to follow in the footsteps of the previous robotics club president and attend MIT to be a mechanical engineer. Said Eric: “Challenges like these prepare you for the real world.”