By Daily Press staff
Santa Monica High School is hoping to produce at least one robot this year.
The goal is to design and build a functional robot within six weeks so it will be ready to compete in a game that pits machines against each other.
A group of Samohi students are organizing a team to help them design and build a 130-pound robot to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition in January.
The Samohi team, along with hundreds of other students from around the world, will get the same kit of parts and manual of game rules. Last year, the Samohi team came in sixth out of 58 teams that competed in the game known as the “Super Bowl of Smarts.”
The FIRST Robotics Competition, funded partially by NASA, provides high school students the opportunity to work along side professional engineers to design, build and test their own machines, as well as to entice teenagers to pursue careers in science, technology and engineering.
This year’s game, “Stack Attack” requires robots to collect and stack plastic storage containers on their opponent’s side of the playing field. The location of the containers and the height of the stacks determine each team’s score for each round. Two-team alliances must work together to get their robots to move the 29 containers in the center to the opposite ends of the field.
The team includes mechanical, electrical and robotics engineer mentors to work with students to brainstorm, construct, program and test their robot so it’s capable of playing in the competition, which changes each year.
“The idea is to get kids excited about technology,” said Tiiu Lukk, whose son, David Litwak, was the team captain last year. “The objective is not just to build the robot but to get them out there working with professionals and have fun.”
Last year’s team included four mechanical engineers, a physics teacher, four electrical engineers, a set designer, a computer programmer and a UCLA student. Team members also included 10 Samohi kids and two from New Roads School.
This year, Lukk is recruiting students from other high schools to join them in the competition. The team also needs a location to build the robot and another group of mentors from the private sector to help in the project.
“It’s a very specialized thing to do this because it involves geometry, calculus and engineering skills and high schools don’t have the resources to teach that,” Lukk said. “All of the robots look different and function differently... it’s amazing to see what these kids have done.”
Anyone interested in the project should call Lukk at (310) 450-8208.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 8, 2003. Read the original PDF.