Engineering Week at Boeing
by Jillian A.
A man stood in the middle of the theatre. Red glowing sensors in the corners watched every move. He waved his hands and images spun and shifted on the screen. It was a lot like an Xbox Kinect, but this was no game – it was Engineering Week at Boeing. Bear Metal was there to represent FIRST and show Boeing engineers how our team builds robots as part of the FIRST Robotics Challenge.
It was mid-February and we were on winter break at Tahoma High School. We had loaded Bearenstein into Mr. Cahoon's pickup that morning, wrapped in a tarp, and proceeded to the Boeing Developmental Center in Seattle, across from the Museum of Flight. Bearenstein is our robot from 2009, and has a personality suited for public appearances. Also with us were Abby, Alana, Jillian, and Victoria, as well as Mr. Cahoon, Mr. Ward, and Mr. Woodbury.
When we arrived, we set up Bearenstein and waited for groups of engineers to come by and talk with us. We were the last station on an itinerary of stations which groups were visiting. For each group, we introduced ourselves and talked about our activities. Abby started the presentation by telling who we are, Victoria followed up with a description of what we do, Jillian explained why high school students do this sort of thing, and Alana completed the presentation by explaining how we go through a typical robotics season. Then we opened the floor to questions and a closer look at Bearenstein. The engineers at Boeing showed a lot of interest and enthusiasm, asking detailed questions about Bearenstein and our other robots.
We entertained three groups over the course of about an hour. When the last group had left, we were invited to go around the same tour and see what they had seen. Our first stop was the theatre with the Kinect-like demonstration – an advanced combination of motion detection with graphics display.
After the first station, we were asked if we were American citizens before we could continue on the tour, so we probably shouldn't say much more. At the end of the tour, we loaded Bearenstein back in the pickup and returned to Portable 12. There was only one more day before we had to bag and tag Ursa Major for this year's competition, so we remained at the portable, working through the night until six the next morning.
21st Century Skills
by Miranda M.
Thursday evening, February 3rd, Bear Metal went to the 2011 Tech Expo sponsored by the Kent School District, and held in downtown Kent at the Showare Center. This is the second year of the expo, and the second time Bear Metal has been there. We were invited to represent FIRST, and were joined in this by FRC Team 3221 from Kent Meridian High School.
The expo is a showcase for Kent schools. The theme this year had to do with skills for the 21st century, and the Showare Center was full of booths with students demonstrating the technical skills they are building, from computer-aided learning to video production.
We brought along Bearenstein, our robot from the 2009 FRC competition Lunacy. Bearenstein's favorite trick is to pull in any ball that rolls his way, convey the ball up to his turret, and shoot it out to waiting people. This makes Bearenstein a crowd pleaser, and I was in charge of making sure the eager kids who wanted to throw balls into Bearenstein stayed at a safe distance and all had a chance to try it. Bearenstein was kept very busy all evening, stopping only occasionally to cool his motors.
Team 3221 brought their robot from the 2010 season. They have retrofitted it with a cannon which shoots t-shirts into the crowd, and the loud honk of the pneumatic cannon resounded frequently through the Showare Center. The sound is akin to a Canada goose, but much louder.
Eventually, the evening came to a close, and Bear Metal packed up Bearenstein and went back up the hill. Perhaps, we'll be back next year.
The Seattle Robotics Society
by Allyse S.
"A diverse group of professionals and amateurs, high school students and college professors, engineers and tinkerers" -- that's how the Seattle Robotics Society describes itself. In May, Bear Metal went to visit, to see what the engineers, tinkerers and college professors were up to, and to show them what we were up to.
The Society holds monthly meetings at Renton Technical College, and each May they invite FIRST teams to visit, make presentations, and talk about FIRST. This time Bear Metal was joined by team xbot (team 488), Wolverine Robotics (team 949) and Issaquah Robotics Society (team 1318). Representing Bear Metal were students Sean, M., Fred B. and Matt C., along with Mr. Cahoon (our electronics mentor) and Mr. Collins (our advisor).
Sean M., Tahoma Robotics Club president, introduced our club to the Society. Then, Matt C. showed a PowerPoint presentation he had put together about programming the camera on our latest robot "Bearenstein". It was noted that "Bearenstein" has a gyroscopically controlled turret which is able to keep the camera pointing at a target even while the robot moves and turns beneath it. Our robot design won the Xerox Creativity Award at the Portland regional and the Rockwell Automation Innovation Award at the Seattle regional.
Bear Metal was impressed by the other presentations at the meeting. One of the Society members showed a project he was working on but which wasn't yet complete: a plastic ball covered with LEDs. Like a sign board, the LEDs will show a message, and as the ball rolls, the words will roll with the ball, producing the eerie effect of a motionless message on the rolling ball. It's a cool idea, and we hope to see it once it's working.
We are grateful to the Seattle Robotics Society for arranging this yearly event, and allowing us to present our projects to members of the Society. We get to show what we have been working on for months, and the amazing effort we put in to make our robots a reality.
