Robotics whiz kids compete at Central High

The Robowolves, Techeads, and N.E.R.D.S. were just a few of the bands of young intellectuals that arrived at Central High School on Saturday morning, geared up for a challenge months in the making.

The middle and high school students glided across the school's gymnasium, delicately carrying their small robots from mini work stations to an engineer's equivalent of a sporting arena. Referees and all.

Inside the WiFi-enabled field, the idle contraptions of metal and wheels and wires sprung to life as the student-creators lined the perimeter.

"This is their thing - this is their life," said Michael Johnson, a physics teacher and coach of three teams at Central. " 'Robots are life' is a mantra I hear" often.

The spectacle was the local championship for the Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge, an annual student robotics competition that gives student participants a new task every year.

For the 17 teams this year, mostly from the city, the main objective was to knock down a crutch and release a container of perforated plastic balls. From there, the WiFi-enabled, remote-controlled creations - some also with the ability to move autonomously with sensors - worked to collect the balls and load them into color-coded containers.

There was success . . . and there was room for improvement. As is turns out - in addition to codes and nuts and bolts - robots require resilience and camaraderie, too.

"The wheels may fall off, the motor may not work," said Jequan Major, 17, a senior and member of the Iron Patriots at Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne. "We usually have a Plan B, figure something out."

The competition is one of many sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a New Hampshire-based nonprofit with a mission to introduce young people to science and technology. Students were told the specifics of the game in early September and were given certain parameters for their robots.

Three of the teams that competed Saturday will progress to the state championship in Millersville at the end of the month. Teams were evaluated in part on the success of the robots in the arena, though judges also weigh other factors, including community service by the students. The FIRST Tech Challenge also includes a "super regional" and world competition.

Students said they worked on their robots after school (sometimes more than 10 hours per week) and had to maintain good grades in order to participate. Some worked until midnight Friday affixing final touches; others mended broken strings between rounds Saturday.

"That's engineering," said Thomas Zawislak, Pennsylvania's FIRST Tech Challenge affiliate partner, who helped organize the event. "Failure is as good as success."

"This is a great learning experience for them," he added.

For some upperclassmen who compete in a higher-level challenge - the FIRST Robotics Competition - the work is also far from over.

As the FIRST Tech Challenge competition carried on in the gymnasium, a dozen or so Central High students on the school's FIRST Robotics Competition team worked diligently on their robot upstairs in a tight studio filled with power tools and metal bits.

The students expect their robot - which will have to transport plastic totes at a competition next month - to weigh 110 pounds. Two 3D printers created a muffled grinding sound inside the workspace as they crafted hooks to hold the totes. The students have six weeks to work on the robot, per competition rules, and the deadline is approaching.

"We go to sleep thinking about what we have to do with the robot," said Armond Smith, who leads the programming aspects for Central's FIRST Robotics Competition team.

Smith, a 17-year-old senior, was recently accepted at Drexel University to study software engineering and is waiting to hear back from other schools. In addition to practical experience, the robotics group offers something much more basic: "It's a lot of fun," he said.