Springfield, Massachusetts, was home to a battle of the bots over the weekend: Western New England University hosted well over a thousand volunteers, parents and kids devoted to robotics – all for a competition geared toward getting a new generation of learners involved in STEM.
For two days, the basketball court at WNE was packed – but not for March Madness.
High schoolers, coaches and volunteers were taking part in FIRST Robotics games hosted by the university – a program that looks to combine “the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology,” according to organizers.
With the stands filled and nearly 40 teams fielding speedy, metal bots the size of computer chairs in a small arena – the competition was fierce.
Sophia Carrier, a senior at nearby Enfield High School, says each match involves two alliances of three teams facing each other – completing tasks like picking up PVC pipe and putting it on a rack for points – all the while, the opposition can send in a bot to block their efforts.
There’s also a time limit and a bit of a climb at the end.
“… at the end, there's an endgame - the things in the middle are called ‘the cages,’ and in order to score on them, you have to actually climb on them,” she said, describing how bots would rush at the end of rounds to claw at large metal rectangles, dangling over them at various heights in the middle of the arena. “The shallow cage is worth six points, the deep ones are worth twelve.”
Carrier was just volunteering instead of playing Sunday — her squad, Buzz Robotics, won at another competition the weekend prior.
The organization behind the contests, FIRST – “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” – has been putting together events and leagues like these for decades and different age groups – fostering interest in robotics and STEM in general.
For younger kids, that can mean building up bots and machines with LEGOS. For high schoolers like Leo Kusch and his team from Inter-Lakes High School in Meredith, New Hampshire, they get to work with the metal stuff.
“The new competition gets released on Jan. 6, and then we have from then until now – this is our first competition - to build, program and do everything for the robot,” he explained. “You can’t have anything made before the competition is released, so we did it all in that timeframe.”
He and his team spoke with WAMC as they worked on their bot a few feet from the arena – testing hydraulics and the plastic catch meant to hold PVC pipes and balance them to their destination.
The bots are expected to pull, push, speed and grab among other challenges – culminating in all kinds of excitement, says fellow LakerBots member, Katie Strickland.
“It's all the spirit, all the lights and the signs and the yelling. My throat hurts and I'm not going to be able to talk tomorrow, just from screaming,” she said. “I mean, this is what FIRST is all about us – it’s about building community and that is my favorite part - the spirit. We packed the stands, we got our friends, our family, all of our community, especially whenever we're at our closer-to-home competitions - we're a little far away.”
“But this is the best part, seeing everybody make the friends - I've made so many friends here, so has all of our team and … it's a really cool experience,” she continued. “Along with the robots, the robots are also cool.”
For context, the cheering and chanting was virtually nonstop during the elimination rounds WAMC sat in for.
The whole event had a nautical theme. The game the robots played is known as “REEFSCAPE.” Large dodgeballs that can be lifted into an enclosure for points are “algae,” PVC pipes are “coral” that got on metal bars known as “reefs,” and the metal cage bots have to grab at the very end are “barges.”
Spectators dressed appropriately – one group brought massive jellyfish puppets, while another, supporters for Team Longmetal, opted for swashbuckling – with pirate gear and a ship mast standing over them – Lee Allentuck, co-founder of the FIRST team from Longmeadow, Mass., was among them.
“I started the team 13 years ago with my son, when he was in fourth grade, and then, as we kind of matriculated to high school, there was no high school program, so, we wanted to put this together, and it's been great,” he said. “We've impacted hundreds of kids, helped them find their thing, whether it's robotics, whether it's CAD drawing, whether it's coding, fundraising, business marketing – it helps them find their thing that they love, and helps them, hopefully, get into college and find their careers.”
There were plenty of other local teams, as well. That included the Discovery PolyBotz – the only Springfield team in the mix, with students from Discovery High School.
Senior Erick Montiel says their hopes weren’t exactly high, yet, the event’s top two teams, tasked with picking another to fill out their three-team “alliance,” picked them for the playoffs.
It became a Cinderella run for the PolyBotz after that – playing out as fellow senior Izabella Martinez spoke with WAMC.
“… it’s not even the fastest robot here, there’s plenty of robots who have their code and all types of things,” she said before a new score appeared on a massive screen standing over the arena – leading to screams from the Springfield supporters.
Following a review post-match, the PolyBotz found out their alliance earned the high score of the event – it would last the rest of the day, as their squard including teams from Southington and Windsor Locks, Connecticut, went on to be the event’s winners.
To Christian Salmon, Chair of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at WNE and program coordinator for the Western New England FIRST Robotics Initiative – showing kids the value of teamwork, coordinating and more are just of the competition’s benefits.
“With this, robotics, you're integrating the future of industry into the public school system, so, for them, coming out and having [an] engineering mindset, a business mindset, the capacity to write code and design and build - this is one of the big things, everybody says ‘Kids can't do anything - they can't make things anymore.’ Well, look at these robots. They're fantastic things,” he said. “They’re life skills, including teamwork and working as a as a team, which is what everybody does in industry - very few people work alone: they work as an integrated team of people with different skillsets.”
Salmon says the Western New England FIRST Robotics event is a qualifier like others held in the region – and that top teams will go on to the district championships, hosted at the Big E Fairgrounds in West Springfield in April.
