Poudre High School 's Alpine Robotics Team Has What it Takes

Anupama Mehrotra, Co-Captain

The United States is losing the battle when it comes to math and science. Other countries have had much higher test scores, and some sources even suggest that the US is ranked 27th and 28th in these subject areas. However, a new competition is rapidly taking high school students by storm. It involves math, science and engineering instead of a ball, and it is still able to retain the exciting atmosphere that accompanies a sports match.

The organization responsible for creating this ingenious competition is called FIRST. Founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen (known for inventions like the Segway), FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an internationally recognized organization that was created to not only enable students to learn about science and technology, but to offer the ability to actually apply this knowledge to real life situations and challenges. FIRST teaches leadership, knowledge, self-confidence, life skills and opportunities for future education and employment. More than 37,000 high school students and over 106,000 elementary and junior high students compete internationally in FIRST.

FIRST Competitions

FIRST incorporates children of all ages into the world of science and technology and offers fun challenges to captivate and renew the interest of those as young as six. The competition categories include Junior Lego League (ages 6-9), Lego League (9-14), Tech Challenges (high school ages), and Robotics Competition (high school ages). Many students begin in one of the competitions for younger students and find themselves continuing participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). A perfect example of continued participation is Poudre High School 's Alpine Robotics Team 159, located in Fort Collins, Colorado. Members have matriculated in from Lego robotics or are entirely new to the FIRST experience.

Figure 1. Alpine Robotics Members Phillip Flynn (left) and Josh Greene (right) work on the robot during competition and answer questions posed by other teams' members.


The 2008 FIRST Robotics competition is called "Overdrive." Essentially a race, the game involves robots that drive as fast as possible around a 16.5 m x 7.9 m (54 ft x 26 ft) field while passing a 1.1 m (3.5 ft) diameter ball either under or over a 1.8 m (6 ft) high rack that intersects the race track horizontally. Teams have six weeks from the release of the task (a nationwide broadcast that teams view in their regions) to complete their robot. FIRST emphasizes student driven designs, so that all who participate engage and learn as much as possible during the stressful design window. All aspects of creating a 54.4-kilogram (120-pound) robot must be completed within this extremely short period of time. To accomplish this difficult task, Alpine Robotics' design process is as follows:

● Brainstorm the project.

● Design the robot using industry-standard CAD (Computer Aided Design) programs like SolidWorks.

● Mill out appropriately sized metal parts.

● Use a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) mill to cut out more complicated aspects of the robot.

● Assemble all of the milled and CNC manufactured parts.

● Design and assemble the electronics.

● Program the robot.

● Calibrate the robot.

● Practice driving sessions with the robot.

● Troubleshooting.

All these steps must be completed before the FedEx truck arrives on the last day of the sixth week to take their machine away from them. If any aspect is not completed by the ship day, it must be completed at the competition or just left unfinished. This simulates the engineering process.

FIRST teams are responsible for their own fundraising, and the expenses of one season are extensive. During the six-week robotics season, Alpine Robotics spends an average of $6000 for the Colorado FIRST regional competition, $5000 for the national competition, $3000 for metal stock, $1000 for electronic equipment, and about $1000 for transmission parts, motors, gears, playing field components, hardware and machine shop tooling. With an additional $15,000 in travel expenses, one robotics season is costly. For this reason, teams must reach out to local companies for support. Alpine Robotics is lucky to be surrounded by a scientifically rich community where local businesses enthusiastically accommodate young engineering initiative.

Poudre High School 's Alpine Robotics Team 159 stands out among the others teams in Colorado, and is going on its eleventh year in the FIRST competition. Alpine Robotics Team 159 is proud of its number, which signifies that it was the 159th team to join the league and the first to do so in Colorado. The team has grown tremendously and has won several prestigious awards. The number of teams across the state has also increased dramatically, from only Alpine Robotics in 1998 to 41 teams that currently attend the Colorado Regional. Hoping to see this trend of growth continue, they have endeavored to involve the public with their Regional Competition, which will be held at the University of Denver Campus on 28-29 March and the national competition which will be held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta on 17-18 April.

Figure 2. The 2008 Poudre High School Alpine Robotics Team 159 with their coaches and mentors. Shown here (from right to left, bottom to top) Clinton Knackstedt, Phillip Flynn, Marla Potterveld, Elliot Ross, Teacher Katie Parsanko, Anupama Mehrotra (the author), Josh Greene, Kate Neff Griffin Arellano, and Sam Thompson; second row: Albert Tang, Kevin Baker, Kevin Mendoza, Jon Anderson, Kati Zybko, Ryan Casey, Oliver Homan, Cal Jancin, Charles Mehrotra, Peter Koziol, Chad Ruffing, and Teacher Steve Sayers; and third row: Ben Lewis, Ilya Smirnov, Teacher Gordon Smith, Alex Kreger, Elizabeth Mahon, Susie Potterveld, Avery Wittmeyer and Kendra Erskine.

Last year, Alpine Robotics won the Chairman's Award at the regional competition. This award, FIRST 's most prestigious, “honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. The award helps the central focus of the FIRST Robotics Competition remain on the goal of inspiring greater of respect and honor for science and technology.” For two years in a row, the team has won this award, and they are fighting to do so again. Fiercely working to accomplish “Dean's Homework,” which is assigned at the beginning of every season to all teams, Alpine Robotics is reaching out to the public. They hope to spark support for all robotics teams, and they hope to see that support demonstrated at every regional competition, where every stand would be filled with enthusiastic fans not normally affiliated with FIRST. The sports-like, adrenaline-filled atmosphere of the competition has captivated its participants, and they are now actively involved in a mass movement to spread FIRST to the general public.

Figure 3. Alpine Robotics provides tours for local, state and federal politicians through their shop and at the regional events. Shown here (from left to right) are Nick Hobbs, Marla Potterveld, Representative Randy Fischer, and Anupama Mehrotra, who is a team co-captain and the author of this article.

In order to make the first step, last year the team contacted their local, state and federal politicians and invited them to their school's technology shop, gave them student-led tours, explained the FIRST process, and invited them to the Colorado Regional competition. Colorado Lt. Governor Barbara O'Brien and Representative Randy Fischer attended and spoke on behalf of Alpine Robotics, congratulating everyone who attended on their accomplishments.

The team is planning a Robotics Day at the State capitol and is repairing two of the previous year's robots that are scheduled to perform during half time at a Denver Nuggets basketball game.

Figure 4. The 2007 Robot, the Impalabot, during a match. It has just successfully put a red inner tube on the 8' tall, 10' diameter rack that stands in the middle of the field.

Aside from all this, the Poudre High School 's Alpine Robotics Team is well-known for its community involvement. Representative Randy Fischer put it well when he introduced the team as the “rock stars of their school” to the Colorado State House of Representatives. Reaching out to local elementary and junior highs, participation in the city's Homecoming Parade and performing at their high school's assemblies are just some of the team's community activities. One of the new goals for this year is to become environmentally conscious. The team has made a great effort to raise an additional $3000 to offset their carbon footprints for three seasons. The team is also responsible for running the FIRST Lego League, and last year the tournament was only second largest to the Lego League tournament in Legoland, California, with 80+ teams distributed throughout the school's three gyms. Because of the immense size of the tournament, it has been split into multiple qualifier rounds throughout Colorado. The popularity of this particular sub-FIRST league is growing in Colorado, and this team has had a huge hand in it.

Figure 5. Alpine Robotics at the 2007 Colorado Regional with the Lt. Governor Barbara O'Brien (center) and Representative Fischer (bottom center).

An important part of the student-driven Alpine Robotics team is their mentor involvement. There are a few teams in the FIRST league made up of adults who build the robots while the student members watch. However, Alpine Robotics is proud of the fact that it is entirely the other way around. With dedicated mentors volunteering an immense amount of time to the team every year, it's difficult to walk the line between too much involvement, and the mentors on Team 159 do it well. Mentors provide advice and guidance when asked. Sometimes, their advice is ignored. When members later ask how to fix a mistake caused by ignoring previous advice, the mentors help and teach with the same enthusiasm as before. Though this may seem a round about way of getting something done, the whole process teaches the students a lot about the process of engineering and what will and will not work and why. While the mentors teach the students, the students on the team are also responsible for teaching each other. If there were not seniors who could teach the rookies what to do and how to do it, the program would never continue year after year. The team's community involvement with the Lego League participants also keeps this cycle of learning and teaching going by teaching out to the younger students and encouraging them to participate in the high school program

Figure 6. The 2007 Poudre High School Alpine Robotics team just after winning the Colorado Regional Chairman's Award at the University of Denver 's Magnus Arena.

The impact the FIRST program has on students is phenomenal. Several graduates of the Poudre High School Alpine Robotics team have visited the team during college vacations, and they often check up on how the season is going and do what they can to help their old teams. Damien Manda, who graduated in 2005, is now the Director and Head of the Lego League Tournament held in Boulder, Colorado. Nick Hobbs, who graduated in 2006, is currently attending Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, one of the most esteemed engineering universities in the nation, and continues to volunteer with FIRST. In addition to mentoring a team, he is working to make the robotics competition easier to participate in for teams who come from low-income environments. Marla Potterveld, currently a senior on the team has had a paid internship with the Hewlett-Packard Company for two years since she joined the team. Approximately 95% of the students who go through the FIRST program at Poudre High School go on to college and many find themselves in engineering and science programs.

Overall, Poudre High School 's Alpine Robotics team has quite on impact on its participants as well as its community. Students gain an irreplaceable understanding of real life scenarios and educational interests not provided by the usual high school curriculum.

If this program and its effects spark your interest, please contact Alpine Robotics Team 159 at 23314@psdschools.org . To view FIRST 's web site, please visit: www.usfirst.org .

For more about the remarkable Alpine Robotics Team 159, visit their web site http://www.alpinerobotics.com/. Also, search on their name to see various online articles about the team. Editor.