Webb Today: Robotics Spring/Summer 2018

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s an after-school program, robotics could almost be called a sport for the mind. It combines the excitement of athletics with the rigors of science and technology. There are competitions, coaches, teamwork, dramatic moments, equipment failures, losses and wins.

atthew u explains the process of the competition: “Every year, ST releases a new game for us to play, with a new set of challenges. ften, there is a simple challenge collecting and scoring balls, for example , a complex challenge li e lifting a yoga ball feet o the ground, last year , and a field challenge two years ago, the Webb robot had to climb a mountain and suspend itself from a bar .”

“Most kids don’t have the remotest idea of what engineering is,” says Will

“ have always loved creating things,” says oder. “When was in middle school participated in my school s robotics club, but Webb was my fi rst competitive robotics team. The current team captain implored more girls to join, because at the time she was the only girl in the program, was completely certain that would be spending all four years of my time at Webb on the robotics team. We now have seven girls, which is more than there have ever been during my time at Webb.”

Wal er, math teacher and advisor to the robotics team. “ t s a subject you can t put in a box. t could be anything from building power plants to designing the front of a dishwasher.”

Each year, to students ta e part in the program o ered in after school sessions five days a wee .

Andrew amilton teaches ntegrated hysics and hemistry and is an advisor to the team he says the program provides a place for anyone who is interested, from students who want to build the robot, to others who might be more interested in programming or electronics.

The Webb teams participate in ST or nspiration and ecognition of Science and Technology competitions which were founded by ean amen, inventor of the Segway and portable dialysis and automatic injection machines. amen famously says, “ ou have teenagers thin ing they re going to ma e millions as A stars when that s not realistic for even percent of them. ecoming a scientist or engineer is.”

Some students join the team because they ve always been interested in building things, li e essica oder .

The team came into being years ago. Wal er describes himself as “one of those ids who was always ta ing things apart,” and with a bac ground in electrical engineering it was a natural fit for him to lead the new program. The group started with eight to students, enough for one team. Today, Wal er and amilton mentor upwards of participants, nearly a third of which are girls.

The challenge from the ST organi ation is sent out in September and then the teams start wor ing on prototypes.

“A lot goes into deciding what the robot is going to do,” explains Wal er. “Students are as ing themselves, What systems will create to accomplish this ”

29 One of Webb’s robotics teams,

FTC Team 359, a.k.a. WEBB.exe,

was invited to compete at the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championships in Houston in April 2018—the second invitation for a Webb team in five years. This was an amazing opportunity for a hard working group of students, which included Jacob Borello ’19, Kit Caldwell ’18 and Wing Chow ’19.

“Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been.”

– Albert Einstein

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Students learn to use hand tools, to mill and lathe. There is a band saw and a drill press and what amilton describes as “ smaller tools.”

Everyone finds their niche on a team.

Andi elgado joined as a freshman with no discernable skills pertaining to robots. “ learned about the various tools and how to use them, but come sophomore year, was overseeing our business relations as well as maintaining our engineering journal a documentation of everything we do on the team,” says elgado. “ n my sophomore and junior years, acted more as a liaison between our team and the outside world, making our team nown to the public via multiple social media channels. n my senior year, however, became more involved with mechanics. spent a great deal of time modelling di erent designs via A computer aided design . y designs were among the many prototypes that were tested on our robot.” acob orello describes himself as a “curious freshman without any athletic talent” when he signed on to the team. owever, he was always interested in the STE science, technology, engineering and math fields. “ used to thin robotics was a far o reality, which would only be available to me later in life,” says orello. e says he felt he had very little to o er the team, other than enthusiasm, but was able to learn uic ly through hands on experience. n addition, he s ac uired a lot of capabilities that transfer to other important aspects of life.

“ uring my three years on the team, have learned very important lessons like what kinds of builds were above our reach, and what we can accomplish if we wor hard enough. ve also learned to apply geometry and trigonometry in a real wor environment, which thought d never have a need to do,” he says. elgado also tal s about lessons learned through robotics: “ ve learned the importance of nowing and ac nowledging when something isn t wor ing. There were so many moments when something you ve spent a lot of time ma ing and have become almost emotionally attached to doesn t wor the way you want it to, and at that point, it s better to just scrap the piece and go bac to s uare one.” onathan unn said that participating on the robotics team inspired him to study math while he was in college. Today, he is a trading analyst at Ameri ome ortgage ompany, .

“I majored in economics, but I also double minored in mathematical finance and computer programming,” says Gunn, who graduated from the University of Southern California, which he attended on a fulltuition academic scholarship. “If I had not done robotics I would never have realized my passion for math and programming.

In my career, I am constantly using my programming skills to analyze large data sets and to automate complex calculations.

I work on a mortgage-backed securities trading desk, which involves a lot of time-sensitive calculations, so these are invaluable skills that I use daily.” roo lyn lynn is currently pursuing two degrees at niversity of alifornia, rvine, one in mathematical biology and the other in biological sciences.

“Although these college paths might not seem li e they relate to a high school robotics team, my time as a aulbot gave me a sample of wor ing with applied math, computer science,

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important everyone s role is. When you re wor ing on a team, everyone has di erent strengths and you have to figure out each person s strength or passion.”

As part of her undergraduate studies, Spangler has had the opportunity to wor on a project for ewlett ac ard. “ was part of a larger team. ou re just in awe of everyone else and you reali e that none of us could finish the project by ourselves,” she says. ne of the main ta eaways from her time on the robotics team is that she s never afraid to tac le any problem. and robotic design, while exposing me to professionals who used these fields daily in their careers,” says lynn. lynn s ultimate goal is to conduct research in mathematical modeling of dynamic biological systems.

“Modeling involves a lot of calculus, di erential e uations, linear algebra, numerical analysis and coding experience,” she says. “ am currently conducting research on algorithms which will help me in my career. Even though did not learn advanced math on the team, being a part of robotics showed me what could do in research beginning with the basics we used.” n the simplest of terms, engineers identify a problem, and come up with a solution often creating something completely new in the process. That is the basis of building a robot. elissa Spangler is an engineering major at arvey udd ollege at Webb, she was a member of the robotics team for her entire tenure at school. She was co captain and captain of the team. And in , she was the only woman on the Webb team that traveled to the world championship in issouri. “ always new wanted to go into the sciences or math,” says Spangler. “ ut never thought about engineering. eing part of the team made me comfortable building things with my hands.”

Than s to her experience on the robotics team, Spangler says she s had confidence and nowledge from the get go at arvey udd. “ learned how to as for help,” she adds. “ also learned how many parts of the project there are to put together and how

Throughout the decade long history of the program, students have also created an engineering noteboo where they document their successes and failures. ast year s contribution was nearly pages long.

Beyond the STEM aspects of robotics, there are additional benefits to joining the team: learning to cooperate with others, improving social interaction skills and learning the highs and lows of competing. There’s also leadership, community involvement and something the FIRST competition calls “gracious professionalism.”

“All students who are involved in the robotics team are there to do their best,” says amilton. racious professionalism is defined on the ST website as “a way of doing things that encourages high uality wor , emphasi es the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.”

“Webb students are already primed for this through our culture of honor,” he says.

The senior, u, says he s also learned one more valuable lesson from his time on the team: “ atience. ve learned to be much more patient. don t now how teachers can stand to teach freshmen,” he jo es. “ respect my teachers much more now. Wor ing with freshmen taught me patience.”