KAILUA-KONA — Two West Hawaii schools will compete today and tomorrow in Honolulu for a chance to test their tech know-how at a world championship robotics competition in April.
KAILUA-KONA — Two West Hawaii schools will compete today and tomorrow in Honolulu for a chance to test their tech know-how at a world championship robotics competition in April.
The stakes are high.
For many members of the team from West Hawaii Explorations Academy, the FIRST Robotics Regional Competition is their first chance to show off their skills. The team from Kealakehe High School, meanwhile, is looking to continue their record of consistently qualifying for the world championship.
“It’s fantastic to be able to get a robot moving and sort of feel responsible for that as a team,” said WHEA sophomore Emily Davis.
The regional competition, now in its 10th year, is at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Stan Sheriff Center. A total of 36 teams from Hawaii and beyond will compete at the event, according to a release.
Each year, the competition features a different “game” or challenge that robots — built by the students over a span of weeks — must overcome.
This year’s theme, “Steamworks,” takes on a “very steampunky,” industrial feel, said Angela Wong of Friends of Hawaii Robotics.
Wong said teams have six weeks from the time the game is announced to complete their robots.
“In that six weeks, they also have to design, program, fabricate, troubleshoot, test and do things like that to make sure the robot is functional, completing the mission task,” she said.
For Steamworks, teams’ robots have two and a half minutes to collect as many “fuel” balls as possible and launch them into target goals as part of the challenge.
The regionals winner and those who qualify for certain awards, Wong said, will continue on to the World Championships in Houston in April.
WHEA isn’t the only West Hawaii school making an appearance at this year’s contest. Kealakehe High School will also join.
Career and technical education coordinator Justin Brown said this is their program’s seventh year participating in the FIRST competition. The program has qualified for the World Championship every time.
“So we’ve got a little streak right there,” he said.
Students noted how their involvement in robotics has taught them not only the technical aspects that go into robotics but also skills like communication and teamwork that they can carry with them to any industry, with Brown calling it “mental cross-training.”
WHEA sophomore Hunter Patterson said teams had to be able to work not only within their own subgroups, such as those that focused on programming or engineering, but also working with the other subgroups toward the final goal of having a working robot.
“The engineering team needs to have their stuff done — prototypes or whatever — and then we can start developing code for that so that way it starts working,” he said. “So if there’s no communication and things don’t get done on both sides, then nothing happens.”
WHEA team manager Jenna Muraoka, a sophomore, said communication was a huge part and that any problems that arose had to be talked out.
“And sometimes the communication wasn’t there, but in the end I feel like we did have to get it together for the most part,” she said. “We’ve learned a lot from the process of this all.”
“Oh yeah,” added Davis, “a lot of late nights learning.”
And there’s a lot of options for all the students.
Kealakehe High School senior Alexandra Nisenoff, robotics has“something for everyone in it.
“Wherever you are, there are always programs that are going to give you good introduction to the skills that will help you with robotics,” she said.
“Because it’s not just about building robots and programming and all that,” she added. “There’s also an element of documentation, recording what’s happening. So even if you don’t think you’re super into the building part of it, there’s always an in. And you may discover through robotics that you actually do love this thing.”
The teachers who watched as students made their robots come to life all stressed the importance of taking a hands-off approach and letting the teens make their own discoveries.
Liana White, high school lead teacher at WHEA, said that once students become invested in their projects, they take more and more initiative to push the project forward.
“They know what needs to come next; they have a sense of urgency and motivation that it’s intrinsic and becomes so much more authentic,” she said. “That’s just an awesome thing to see, that light just come on in someone.”