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Cheers erupted in a Bowie High School classroom as a box-shaped frame rolled across the floor, scooping foam balls into an interior loading compartment. The cheers were from students excited to see their first successful test drive of the box, a robot they will enter in a robotics competition in March.
About 25 students from around the county, but mostly from Bowie High, have been working on the robot since early January, and will enter it in the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition. The regional event is held March 19 to 21. If the team does well, it will qualify for the national competition held April 16 to 18 in Atlanta, Ga.
The kit, which costs $6,000, was paid for in part by sponsoring organizations, including Booz Allen Hamilton and BAE Systems. But to be a serious contender, additions are required, said Clay Wilson, a volunteer from the Seat Pleasant-based Patriots Technology Training Center, one of the organizations sponsoring the Bowie team.
Bowie junior Obi Emeruwa, 16, estimated the team, which goes by the moniker New Age Chaos, will spend an additional $1,200 in supplies bought from hardware stores.
For many of the students, the competition provides hands-on experience in their future careers.
"Most of the guys want to be engineers or architects," said Bowie High Technology Department Director Terry Hayes, who is leading the team.
Taking a break from operating the robot's conveyor belt by remote control, Bowie senior Trenton Lindholm, 17, said he plans to major in engineering at Pennsylvania State University or the University of Maryland at College Park. While he's competed in other robot-building events, Lindholm said the FIRST competition requires more technical skills in getting the robot to work.
"We've had a lot of issues with wireless controllers and trying to get them to work together," he said.
But on Feb. 5, as the robot rolled across the classroom floor, everything was working fine.
"It's nice to see all the hard work come together," Lindholm said.
Bowie senior Luel Bekeele, 17, who will drive the robot via remote control in the competition, said the process has been a great learning experience. It's even made him more seriously consider computer engineering as a profession.
"I developed more of an interest in computer engineering for it," he said.
In the competition, six robots will take to the floor at a time and form alliances for three-minute matches, even operating on a program rather than by remote control for a portion of the match.
"The objective is to score points by throwing objects into a competitors' trailer," said Wilson. "Our robot has to be able to move around to keep objects out of our trailer while they throw stuff at us."
Students and teachers said watching the robots battle it out is exhilarating.
"This is on a level of March Madness," Hayes said. "I feel it's right on the level of competing in sports."
Get a preview
To get a sneak peak of the Bowie team's robot, check out the Play Day
scrimmage scheduled for Saturday at the Luke C. Moore Academy Senior High School, located at 1001 Monroe Street N.E. in Washington, D.C. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m., with scrimmage matches scheduled throughout the day.
