| Family Almanac - Wednesday, March 15, 2006
M-A's robotics team heads for competition
by JoAnne Goldberg
At the edge of the Menlo-Atherton High School campus, the lights are on late in the shop room. A few dozen students, their parents, and volunteer coaches scramble to complete their team's entry for this year's FIRST robotics competitions, set for Friday and Saturday, March 17 and 18 in San Jose.
The shop is the high school equivalent of a high-energy, high-tech startup.
Last year's M-A team, a dark horse competing against better funded and older teams, won the regional competition in Sacramento and walked off with one of the top prizes in the international championship in Atlanta. But this year's students and their coaches seem unaware of any pressure to repeat last year's sweep.
"We're not trying to live up to anyone's expectations," says team president Christina Robinson. "Just our own."
The 2005 team included many seniors who founded the team their freshman year; this year's team has many new faces. They're working to build a robot that can compete in a 3-on-3 basketball game with robots built by teams from other local high schools as well as several out-of-state teams.
Robotics requires the efforts of the entire village. Local businesses help underwrite the costs of the substantial kit and competition fees, while parents strategize marketing, work out logistics, and cater the long work sessions as the students try to remember everything they have ever learned about geometry, physics, and calculus (discovering these topics really are important in the real world).
Three volunteer coaches — Scott Baron, Brandon Loudermilk and Dave Rhodes — have donated hundreds of hours to guide the students through the six-week design and build process.
"I'm amazed at the depth of talent on this team," says Brandon. On one side of the shop, students are paring bits of Plexiglas from a component, and outdoors a small group watches junior Robby Eaton don goggles and prepare to weld.
"Chisel!" Robby directs a freshman. "Hammer. Clamps." The welding begins with the efficiency of a surgical procedure.
In three days they can take a break and catch up on schoolwork and the rest of their lives ... at least until the Silicon Valley Regional begins in mid-March.
INFORMATION
• The public is invited to stop by the FIRST robotics competition on Friday and Saturday, March 17 and March 18, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the San Jose State Event Center, 290 South 7th St. Admission is free. The following week, the team will be in Davis for the Sacramento Regional Tournament.
• For more information on the M-A robotics team, go to marobotics.org; for more information on the competition, go to www.usfirst.org/robotics.
JoAnne Goldberg is the mother of a member of the M-A robotics team.
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For more information: JoAnne Goldberg at joanne@missionctrl.com/650-400-8663
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