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06.09

IEEE Members Mentor Students Participating in FIRST Robotics Competition

By Abby Vogel

When more than 10,000 students gathered in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome in April to compete in a robotics championship, the stands were filled with cheering teachers, parents, coaches and mentors — many of whom are IEEE members.

“This competition provides a tremendous opportunity for encouraging kids to study science and engineering,” said IEEE senior member Leandro Giovanni Barajas, a staff researcher at General Motors and mentor for Team 201. “Making the robot is a lot of fun, but I’ve also learned a lot and grown as a person from this mentoring experience.”

The FIRST Robotics Competition, founded by IEEE member, inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, who is famous for inventing the Segway scooter, challenges teams of students to build their own robots to compete in a game. The teams operate more like start-up companies than typical clubs or classes though, according to IEEE affiliate member and Team 115 mentor Mauri Laitinen.

“The students have to deal with everything from fundraising to publicity in order to pay for registration and materials,” Laitinen said. “They have to deal with constraints and compromises in their design and build efforts, and there is a real possibility of having a robot that doesn’t work.”

This year’s game, called “Lunacy,” was played on a low-friction floor to honor the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, which was the first manned mission to land on the moon. The teens had less than six weeks to design and build robots that could pick up nine-inch round balls and throw them into trailers hitched to their opponents’ robots for points.

“This competition is a way to help students learn about engineering and science in more of a ‘real world’ type of environment as opposed to the classroom,” said IEEE senior member David Wachenschwanz, vice president of engineering at Western Digital and mentor for Team 846.

Since FIRST simply supplies each team with the same kit of parts — motors, batteries, a control system, and a mix of automation components — and no instructions, the students rely on the team mentors for guidance. Many IEEE members serve as electronics mentors, helping students with the electronics and programming required to get their robot to move around the field and spew balls into the trailers of opponent robots.

Jerry Becker, a parent mentor for Team 1675, was amazed by IEEE member Jon Anderson’s ability to teach the students how to program in C++.

“Jon takes the kids from knowing nothing about programming to where they can do the programming by themselves without him there,” said Becker.

Besides earning the respect from other mentors, IEEE members also earn the admiration of the students.

“He’s extremely knowledgeable in electronics and programming and he’s good at finding the best way to get to the end result,” student Ben Steigerwald said about Laitinen.

Alistair Brice, a student on IEEE member Don May’s team, said “Mr. May is really smart and he’s willing to help in any way he can.”

However, for IEEE members, the competition is about much more than looking smart and building a robot, it’s about mentoring the engineers of tomorrow.

“The students have all said that their participation in FIRST has been a great influence on their lives and convinced them to pursue a future in science, engineering and technology,” said Anderson, a software engineer for Rockwell Automation.

Mark Dobbs, an IEEE member, telecommunications engineer with Duke Energy and mentor for Team 234, has had a similar experience with his team.

“The majority of the kids from this team go to Purdue University for engineering and most stay with it and become mentors themselves at the local high schools near Purdue,” he said.

Participating in this robotics competition inspires students to realize that science, technology, engineering and math can be exciting.

“Math becomes more of a fun puzzle to them rather than just an assignment,” noted IEEE student member Dereck Wonnacott of Lake Superior State University.

While some FIRST Robotics teams have IEEE members, more IEEE members should get involved in this competition, said IEEE member Ron Pyke, a senior member of the consulting staff at Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and mentor for team 492.

“The students are very eager to learn new and better ways of designing, building and testing the robot and components of it. Even if your particular area of expertise is not directly applicable, your experience, engineering discipline and encouragement will be a big help,” he said.

In addition, IEEE-USA’s involvement in next year’s FIRST Robotics Competition should be clearer, according to IEEE-USA Precollege Education Committee chair Dusty Fisher. At their meeting on 2 May 2009, the committee passed a motion to move ahead with a clearly defined relationship to support both IEEE members and FIRST in several new ways.

“Two of our new initiatives are to invite IEEE chapter chairs to participate in regional championships and recognize IEEE members for the special skill-set they bring to a team as mentors and inspectors,” Fisher added.

To find out how to volunteer with FIRST Robotics, visit www.usfirst.org.

Abby Vogel, Ph.D., is a communications officer in the Research News and Publications office at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this position, she writes about Georgia Tech research discoveries and developments, and assists reporters in their coverage of Georgia Tech research. Vogel also serves as chair of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee and as an editor for IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer. Comments on this article may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.