Students square off against peers in robotics competition
WARWICK — Justice Smith, a sophomore at Blackstone Academy Charter School in Pawtucket, said his interest in robotics stemmed from his love of the 2005 animated comedy film “Robots.”
He said he’d watch the movie – which features the voices of Robin Williams, Ewan McGregor and Halle Berry as sentient robots – as a child and was eventually able to turn that fascination into an education when he joined the school’s Blackstone Bulldogs robotics club.
“I like engineering and this helps with programming. It’s a lot of fun,” Smith said of his second year in the program. “We build a lot and make new discoveries. When you get stuck, everyone has an idea, and when someone breaks a robot, we have to figure out how to improve it.”
Smith and his teammates on the Blackstone Bulldogs were among 31 schools across Rhode Island which descended upon New England Institute of Technology’s Automotive Campus on Saturday to showcase their STEM skills in a high-energy robotics competition. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.
This was the 13th year in which New England Institute of Technology played host to Rhode Island’s FIRST Tech Challenge, a day-long series of robot contests. FIRST stands for
“For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” FIRST was founded in the late 1980s by inventor Dean Kamen, who sought to inspire students with an appreciation of science and technology through robotics.
The challenge that the teams were engaged in on Saturday was called “Rover Ruckus.” It involved robots in two periods – autonomous and driver-controlled – seeking to attain a higher score than the opposing squad by descending from a “lander,” collecting “minerals,” and sorting and scoring them into the lander’s “cargo hold.”
Daniel Goncalves, a seventh-grader at Samuel Slater Junior High School in Pawtucket and a member of the school’s “Leonidas” team, said his squad was in the midst of some frantic, last-minute repairs in advance of Saturday morning’s competition. They were having trouble with the robot’s expansion hub, which fell apart, and they were working tirelessly to secure it before the first challenge of the morning. Additionally, they were stripping the axle and changing the wheel well at the eleventh hour.
These repairs may sound complicated, but to the students on Slater Junior High’s robotics teams – Leonidas and The Spartins – it’s become second nature. For Goncalves, participating in the robotics club piqued his curiosity in science, technology, engineering and math – better known in schools as STEM.
“I realized we had this in my school and I decided to join and try it,” Goncalves said. “I love it. I get to meet other people who like the same concepts as me. Without it, I would not know the people I do now.”
In addition to making new friends, robotics has taught Goncalves and many students like him various aspects of the field of engineering, such as how to build and wire a bot. This has given Goncalves a head start in his education, as he plans on going into the engineering field after high school.
Goncalves knew he and his fellow Slater students were the underdogs on Saturday, as they were among a handful of the only middle schools to participate in the statewide competition. Goncalves hoped that the high school students around him would underestimate them, to perceive Slater’s youth as inexperience. That would make victory even sweeter.
“People don’t think of us the same way as everyone else. They were shocked when we qualified. I’m very excited. A lot underestimate us, but I think we can do it,” he said.
Shea High School senior David Ofori has been involved in robotics going back to his first year with the Slater team in seventh grade. He said he saw benefits every year as well as more and more individual opportunities.
Among the benefits, he said, includes positive exposure for his home city and making a name for Shea High. Personally, he added, robotics has expanded his creative thinking and the ability to express himself with a group of close-knit friends.
“They’re like my second family,” he said of his teammates in the competition. “We do everything for each other.”
Because of his fascination with robotics, Ofori said he plans on majoring in mechanical engineering and has already been accepted into University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth and the University of Maine.
Alexander Chavez, a Pawtucket resident and senior at Blackstone Academy, said it took two weeks to build their robot, which was constructed with a little old-school gumption in addition to modern technology. Because the team had a minimal budget, he said, they had to rely on cardboard for certain aspects of their robot.
“We had to be very creative and think outside the box,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of material, we don’t have as much money as other groups, but we’re doing much better than last year.”
The Blackstone Academy squad finished toward the bottom of the standings last year, but this year they were expecting a top-10 finish, the students said.
While Chavez has learned about STEM from his time with the robotics team, what he’s gained of equal or greater significance are friends with a similar passion.
“Everyone has a love for engineering,” Chavez said of the Blackstone Academy Bulldogs team. He said he hopes to translate his love of engineering into a successful college career at the University of Rhode Island or Suffolk University in Madrid, Spain.
Pawtucket resident and Blackstone Academy senior Matthew Gomez added that he was always fascinated by the “latest and greatest technology.” This fascination, he said, led to a desire to pursue robotics.
His favorite part of participating in the robotics competition, he added, was the excitement for experimenting and brainstorming with his classmates. This turns ideas into possibilities, he said.
“The process makes it fun for me,” Gomez said.