Several thousand kids in North Carolina are gearing up this fall for competitions that test endurance, skill and cooperation on the playing field — but the players doing the scoring are robots.
The goal is to not only sharpen students' technology skills but also marketing and collaboration.
Four robots the size of microwaves with arms and drivetrains sit on a 12-foot-square playing field.
“Blue alliance, are you ready? Red alliance, are you ready? 3, 2, 1…go!” shouts an announcer.
The robots wheel around picking up cones and placing them on short poles called junctions. The humans sit on the sidelines with one kid controlling each robot.
“The blue team working quickly to see as much blue as they can on these junctions,” narrates the announcer.
Robotics championships
This is the World Championship of what’s called FIRST Robotics, which stands For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Teams from a few dozen countries and across the United States came to Houston this spring to compete, including Team Infinite Turtles based in Matthews.
It was the culmination of a lot of work and collaboration, too. Teams meet for months to design and build the robots, document the process and come up with branding.
“As someone that loves STEM, it really keeps you hooked,” said Devan Shah, co-captain of Team Infinite Turtle. “You always have something to do and something to work towards. It's really fun when you meet up with other people, know what you're talking about, and can just collaborate with people around the world on your different robots.”
The team of 11 kids from different high schools meets twice a week at the home of their coaches. A playing field and robotics lab takes up all the space in Rick Hallihan's garage most of the year.
Hallihan is a software engineer who describes his role on the team as a secretary or logistics manager. His son is on the team and his wife also coaches.
“They might come to me if they have a hard problem. But for the most part, they're going to their peers,” said Hallihan.
The team hashes out their uniforms, while 3D printers etch parts they have designed for the robots. They have the names of all their sponsors on the backs — like Microsoft and Collins Aerospace.
Some of the parents’ employers match volunteer hours with grants to the teams, which helps defray the costs. Teams get credit for sharing their knowledge with other teams at kick-off events and showing the uninitiated how they can get involved.
“The skills we build here aren’t just preparing us for an engineering career,” said co-captain Sanjita Srinath. “It would prepare us for any career we want to go into, from leadership to public speaking.”
Academic, skills goals
Nearly 8,000 kids in North Carolina participate in after-school robotics programs through the national group FIRST Robotics. Since it got off the ground in the 1990s, it’s gotten funding from a lot of big tech and manufacturing companies that have a vested interest in these thinkers. North Carolina A&T has designated a faculty member Kory Bennett to help oversee hundreds of teams in the state.
“They are now applying to college for engineering, applying to college for technology, applying to college for science and for math. And when they graduate, they’re obtaining positions with premier engineering companies,” Bennett said.
Another goal is increasing diversity in fields where that’s often lacking. Just over half of participants are students of color, with those of Asian descent making up a third of the older teams Bennett oversees. About 11% of participants come from low-income families.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools recently started teams at three middle schools and East Mecklenburg High School with the goal of drawing more of these students. It can be a lot for districts to take on since they have to pay teachers to be after-school coaches. Team Infinite Turtles helped mentor these new teams and Queen City Robotics Alliance provides expertise and resources.
“Here we also teach students about sportsmanship,” said the alliance’s president Kaiwen Cheng. “These are sports teams. You do a sport through robots, but every one of our athletes can turn pro. So this is an easy investment.”
The alliance just opened a new space for teams to gather in southwest Charlotte, complete with playing fields and equipment to manufacture parts.
One problem Cheng runs up against is that a lot of Charlotte’s technology sector is in the financial industries — and it can be hard to convince them that these students aren’t just engineering robots, they are programming, and solving problems as a team — and often as competitors too.
Teams are quick to offer last-minute help when other teams stumble.
“We would give them a battery. We would help them fix their arm. We would help their code,” said Ryan Hallihan of Team Infinite Turtles. “We would do whatever we could, even if we know in five minutes we are going to be competing against them on the field.
The Infinite Turtles spent Labor Day weekend at Matthews Alive trying to interest other kids in STEM and robots.
A family with two kids into video games stopped by. Their mother Shana Douglass is a FIRST Robotics alum.
“I'm a super nerd, especially when it comes to manufacturing hardware and building the actual, products and devices. That really excites me,” said Douglass.
FIRST Robotics set the tone for her career, says Douglass, first, as a mechanical engineer and then, with emerging technology. She hopes programs like these show her sons they can be builders as well as consumers.
