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Local Robotics Team Qualifies for the Nationals
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April 8, 2003--A team of high school students from the Copper Country Intermediate School District are going to Houston after finishing among the top 10 of the Great Lakes Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, held March 20-22 at Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti.
They will be traveling with their coaches and mentors, 13 engineering students from Michigan Technological University.
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international competition that brings together experts and young people to solve an engineering design problem. In 2003 the competition will reach more than 20,000 students on over 800 teams in 24 competitions. The local team is one of a small minority that rely on college students, not professional engineers, to coach the high school participants.
The competition actually began six weeks before the regionals, when the local group received their instructions. Teams were to build robots to compete in a game named “Stack Attack.”
As in doubles tennis, teams worked in pairs. The object of the game is to get as many boxes on your side of the court as possible. The robots grabbed boxes from a ramp in mid-court and then, for extra points, stacked them on their side.
The team approach allowed competitors to design a robot for a specific task, e.g., pushing boxes, stacking them, or knocking down an opponent’s boxes. The CCISD-Michigan Tech team changed its approach after two rounds, replacing its stacker with an attachment that allowed it to guard a stack and also sweep boxes out of the opponents’ scoring zone.
The team finished ninth in a field of 68 and will compete in the nationals April 10-12.
Team members are Nick Grast, Rodger Hongisto, Ben Kempke, Jordan Marlor, Jay Meldrum, Becky Miller, Alex Nitz, Emily Olson, Laura Olson, James Rivard, Bill Rosemurgy, Sid Thangaraj and Kyle Thornton, from Houghton High School; and John Pastore, from Jeffers High School.
Michigan Tech students advising the team are Kathleen Bendick, Mark Garver, Matt Gilson, Gared Halverson, Lucas Keller, Adam Krajewski, Anthony Lapp, Carrie Markesino, Jason Markesino, John Nielson, Joe Plowe, Tiffany Pesta and Zach Smith. The team advisors are engineering lecturer Doug Oppliger and Mary Raber, MTU’s industrial projects coordinator. |
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