Robots Invade St. Louis
Over 30,000 teenagers boosted the IQ within the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis this week to take part in the U.S. FIRST Robotics championship. The 21-year-old annual competition brings kids aged six to 18 from across the country and around the world to put their robots through a series of sports-inspired physical challenges.
The event was founded by Segway creator Dean Kamen, and stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” Each year, the competition’s theme is determined and students are given a month and a half to construct a robot designed for three challenges. Regardless of the tasks, however, robots must be able to operate autonomously as well as through remote human control.
This year’s theme, “Ultimate Ascent,” set students in motion for six weeks as they built robots designed to throw Frisbee-like disks and climb atop jungle gyms.
But even though robots compete through physical challenges, this is far from BattleBots. Camaraderie is clearly in the air and it can be seen throughout the stands and the professional attitude of the teams as they join resources and forces to repair one another’s robots. Not only that, but many teams collaborate during the brief building period by exchanging designs and software coding.
The goal of the competition isn’t to inspire a next-generation robot. Instead, the organizers hope to motivate the next generation of thought leaders in fields of science and technology.
According to Harry McCracken at TIME, the event is accomplishing its goal. At a regional competition at Silicon Valley, he met a FIRST mentor whose robotics experience dates back to a FIRST competition while he was a high school student in Michigan. His name is Anand Atreya, and he currently works in robotics research at Stanford and has co-founded WiFiSlam, which was recently acquired by Apple.
Perhaps not all of the participants will pursue STEM careers and meet with similar success as Atreya, but that is years away. For now, the focus of these teenagers is on the next two days as they put their robots to the test to find out who has designed FIRST’s best robot.
