Through competition, Robocats turn into engineers
By Dan Roem
“We’re losing.”
It’s not the typical refrain from the coach of a team who is trying to encourage her players to win.
But for Battlefield teacher Gail Drake, that line is exactly why her students must succeed.
The robotics notes that the United States graduated 42,000 engineering majors last year while China and India graduated hundreds of thousands.
And while one study contends that the definition of “engineer” is different in those countries, it doesn't change the fact that the number of degrees being issued overseas is increasing.
Keeping pace and staying ahead of worldly competition is paramount for American companies like Lockheed Martin and SAIC, which require their engineers to have security clearances.
That means they need more American workers.
Robocats
Fortunately for them, all 23 senior Robocats are planning to major in some form of engineering in college.
“This literally is our future workforce,” said Wei Lau of Lockheed Martin as he stood near the rim of the George Mason University Aquatic and Fitness Center pool in Fairfax on March 13.
“We need people who understand the basics. You can take an engineer and create a program manger out of them. You can take an engineer and create a business person out of them, a technical sales person out of them. You can’t take somebody with any of that background and make them an engineer. So we see this as the basis for our future workforce.”
Lockheed Martin and SAIC currently work with Battlefield on the robotics programs. Last summer, those companies and others hired 26 Battlefield students to work as summer interns.
Battlefield’s robotics team is been world renown and is set to be featured on a PBS television series about robotics. In the first year of the Robocats' existence, the team was named a Regional Rookie All Star and also roped in an International Rookie All Star award.
SeaPerch
Lau and Drake were joined recently by Jesse Knight of Lockheed Martin, Duane Mason of SAIC and Battlefield teacher Mike Piccione at George Mason as they performed test-runs with the type of robot Battlefield freshmen and sophomores will have to build for the county-wide SeaPerch competition to be held April 26.
The curriculum for the SeaPerch competition, its Web site and even the prototype for the robot itself were designed and built mostly by upperclassmen at Battlefield in a six-week period last semester.
“It was a lot of stress,” said senior Mike Goodwin. “We were here a lot after school, trying to finish up the curriculum.”
“And we tried to break it down since it’s at a freshman level,” said senior Shannon Files.
Putting the curriculum online meant knowing as much about computer software as buoyancy.
“That took a while,” said Files
Students needed to know about topics ranging from propulsion to electronics and safety in order to build the robot.
“Depending on which angle you choose, [the placement of the motor] can affect the drag and the speed,” explained Goodwin.
Freshmen and sophomore high school students who enjoy video games may be among those getting a kick out of the SeaPerch competition.
A black box with three controllers acts as the control panel for the submerged vessel.
The robot then maneuvers to three large circles with pipes hanging from them. The student controllers have to hook the nose of the robot into a loop, which turns the arm on top of the circle, much like the hands on a clock,
As the arm turns, it hits something similar to a diving ring, which eventually falls into the water. That’s worth a couple of points.
Additional points are awarded when the robot retrieves each ring and brings it back to the controller.
To make things even more difficult, students must answer multiple-choice questions by setting the dials over a letter marked on the top of each circle. It’s basically like a standardized test, only with an arrow pointing over the right answers and underwater robots acting as pencils.
Senior Daniel Sciortino said members of the Team 1885 group that designed the curriculum and built the prototype robot made computer-generated three-dimensional models of the robot so they could figure out how to begin construction.
The students spent so much time testing and retesting their ideas that the project became embedded in their collective subconscious.
“I kind of took it from here to home,” said Goodwin. “I look at my fish tank and wonder how the filter works.”
Experimenting became a major key for the designers, as senior Nathan Hagan said it helped them determine what their robot was capable of doing.
“‘What could be feasible?’” was the overriding question Hagan said he had to answer.
Sciortino even conducted experiments at home in his pool to see how well a particular robot floated and swam.
While the competitors will have guidelines to follow so they can build their own robots, Hagan and sophomore Tiffany Cable recommended they think for themselves and act deliberately.
“Be creative,” said Hagan. “Don’t follow the kit.”
“Plan everything out,” advised Cable.
“Think outside the box. Or, build a bigger one,” added Sciortino with a laugh.