Two Hawaii Island robotics teams will be part of the state’s delegation to an international robotics competition next month.
Two Hawaii Island robotics teams will be part of the state’s delegation to an international robotics competition next month.
Kealakehe High School’s team will return to the world championship event, April 25 to 28 in St. Louis, for their second consecutive year. The school has qualified for the competition both times it has participated in the regional competition. Kealakehe earned its berth by winning the Engineering Inspiration Award, which coach Justin Brown said is a bigger award than just winning the robotics points competition.
“We’re kind of a young program,” Brown said. “Hawaii is kind of a powerhouse (for robotics).”
The award, sponsored by NASA, acknowledges a team’s robot, as well as the work the team does to promote engineering outside of competitions. Kealakehe’s team puts on monthly community outreach events, Brown said.
This year’s robot was designed with the international competition in mind, he added. That’s because students who went to last year’s world competition looked at what robots competing there needed to be able to do — and this year students added in some of those functions.
“We’re very small,” Kealakehe team operations manager Amanda Nelson said, describing some of those design decisions. “We can fit next to other robots on bridges.”
Team members were ecstatic to receive their award, she added.
Kohala High School senior Michael Nelson was one of two students named to the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Dean’s List. Kohala English teacher and robotics mentor Fern White said she nominated Nelson because of the growth he has shown in robotics, as well as how he has become a leader for the robotics program and working with younger students in robotics and athletics.
Kohala prequalified for the international tournament, based upon performance at other competitions White said. They also competed in this weekend’s regional competition. The team has just four members, all seniors.
“My hope is they have a sense of accomplishment, pride and an inner humbleness about tackling the big things in life,” she said.
Michael Nelson said the team started the competition expecting some glitches. While FIRST teams have six weeks to build their robots, Kohala’s team only had four weeks. Team members spent the first week and a half cleaning out their workshop, because the Department of Education condemned and demolished the space, he said.
“We were quite confident it would work, but we knew we’d have some troubles,” he added.
By the end of the tournament, most of those glitches had been overcome, he added.
Skyla Graig-Murray expected this weekend’s FIRST robotics competition on Oahu to take place in a gym, with few spectators.
What the West Hawaii Explorations Academy student saw when she arrived at the 2012 FIRST in Hawaii Regional Championships, at the Stan Sheriff Center, was something bigger.
“It was this huge stadium,” said Graig-Murray, 14. “People had these cheers they did. It was a big deal.”
WHEA’s team, in its second appearance at the regional competition, ended up on the second-place three-team alliance. Schools play three-on-three competitions in early rounds, with the highest-ranked teams then selecting the two teams with which they wish to form an alliance for the elimination rounds. McKinley High School selected WHEA and Punahou School for its team; the three-school alliance made it to the final round, falling to tournament champions Waialua High School, Baldwin High School and Island Pacific Academy. Teams on the winning alliance earned slots at the international competition.
Despite the competitive atmosphere, teams were also very willing to help each other, she said. If one team needed parts, for example, students from other teams came “running up to help them. We’d have multiple teams helping people.”
Teammate Rachel Carrier, also a 14-year-old freshman, said the WHEA team members learned to trust themselves during the competition.
“We don’t need to second guess ourselves as much as we did,” Carrier said.