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.