That robot malfunction is like a day at the office
Clare Malone and Jack Radzanowski, both 16, don’t like it when school is canceled.
That’s not exactly what you’d expect a pair of high school juniors to say, but each snow day means less time to work on their ball-shooting robot, Eclipse.
So on Presidents Day this year — when most of their peers were snuggled up in bed, hiding away from the snowfall — Ms. Malone, Mr. Radzanowski and about a dozen other students were working in the school shop room on their day off.
This team of high school students from Chartiers Valley call themselves “HorsePower.” They’re just one of thousands of teams across the world hoping to win a FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition.
“There have been nights that we started at 2:30 and didn’t go home until 10,” Ms. Malone said.
Her parents have really buckled down and tried to keep her from staying so late, but she wants to make sure everything works before the regional competition starts at California University of Pennsylvania on Thursday.
Beyond the science, technology, engineering and math skills that kids develop through robotics competitions, they’re also developing professional and workforce skills, explained Dane Bennington, the team’s mentor.
Perseverance in solving problems is one of the greatest things you can get out of the program — and Mr. Bennington should know. He competed when he was in high school.
“It’s sort of the joy of problem solving,” he said. “I would have gone and cried in a corner if I couldn’t figure out a programming problem in three hours. The very fact that they do want to spend that much time working on something like this is valuable.”
Mr. Bennington, 30, is now an engineer at the self-driving startup Argo AI. Ten years ago, when he was still in high school in his home state of Oregon, he was a participant in robotics competitions.
He already knew he wanted to go into engineering, he said. But the hands-on experience helped him figure out the type of engineering he wanted to study — electrical.
The problem-solving opportunities he mentioned routinely pop up in the shop while the students
are working.
While showing off their robot’s ability to throw an orange kickball (representing supplies) into a tower shaped like a spaceship, their creation suddenly whipped both of its arms up in the air and smacked against a beam hanging from the ceiling.
As sawdust quietly fell around them and they nervously laughed, the students realized Eclipse had suffered an injury.
“You bent the bolt,” Ms. Malone said, pointing at the part of the robot that had come into contact with the beam, denting it.
There were also two loose gears after the incident.
“This is why we do it now,” Mr. Radzanowski answered with a laugh.
They and their teammates began asking Mr. Bennington questions about which parts of the robot were broken, how they could fix them and if any of the broken hardware would mess with other parts of the invention.
Running around for screwdrivers and bolts, they quickly worked together to fix the mess. After all, the following day was their last chance to improve on Eclipse before they had to bag up the whole robot for competition.
All in all, they only get six weeks to design and build the entire thing.
The injured robot ordeal illustrates some of the findings that suggest kids learn more than just science, technology, engineering and math skills in robotics competitions.
Not only do 75 percent of students involved in the competition go into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers later down the road, but they also develop workforce skills, according to research conducted by Brandeis University, based in Waltham, Mass.
Across decades of competition, the university found that 76 percent of students who participate in FIRST saw increased communication skills, 93 percent improved at conflict resolution and 98 percent reported better problem-solving skills.
In 2018, Gallup — a Washington, D.C.-based management consulting firm — found these “soft skills” were in high demand from employers.
“What matters most isn’t who can write the best code, is proficient in managing profit and loss responsibilities, or can create the best blog in WordPress,” the authors wrote. “Instead, what’s crucial is the inherent enterprising qualities a person possesses.”
Ironically, through working on robots, students improve their inherently human skills.
On Team HorsePower, some of the students design T-shirts. Others are in charge of driving the robot. A few will work on fundraising the $35,000 needed to run the team — none of which comes from the school district.
Ms. Malone, for her part, wants to be a mechanical engineer. She strives to win scholarship money and is confident that competing on the robotics team will help her do that.
“I’d really like to stay in robotics,” she said. “So I guess I’m in the right place.”