Robotics Academy lets teen technicians take creativity to the next level

For kids who look at vacuum cleaners as potential robot warriors and can’t help but dismantle household appliances, Lipscomb University’s summer Robotics Academy provided a healthy and creative outlet for every kids’ robotic aspirations.

 

The two-week program allowed middle and high school students the chance to advance their electrical and robotic programming skills. At the finale of the academy, the Robotics Challenge 2009 pitted the students’ robots against each other to show off what the operators had learned throughout the camp. Building on last year’s BisonBot Robotics camp, the academy was designed to take students “to the next level” in their robotics programming and construction.

 

“Robotics Camp started about two years ago as an Eagle Scout project,” said Greg Nordstrom, Lipscomb engineering professor and the director of Robotics Academy. “From that it progressed to BisonBot Robotics camp for introductory robotics training, to now, when we have Robotics Academy for advanced students.”

 

Admission into the academy was no small feat. Students were selected based on prior experience with robotics, academic achievement and interest in the field. Prospective students had to submit letters of recommendations from previous robotic camps and had to have at least a 3.0 GPA to enroll in the academy.

 

“This year was great because the academic and experience level of the students was so high and they were all like little sponges,” said Nordstrom. “They absorbed everything we taught them so quickly that most days I was scrambling to find something else to teach them, and I think it really gave them a chance to grow in the field and go to the next level.”

 

The first few days of the academy reintroduced students to programming skills and had them participate in logic and programming-focused exercises to strengthen their ability in mechanical construction using gears, levers and multiple motors.

 

“There were so many cool things that Dr. Greg showed us how to do with robots,” said Vincent Foce, a 10^th-grader from Nashville. “We learned how to use dial tones with our robots and they were able to produce their own tones and call our cell phones. It was amazing.”

 

Foce, who has attended previous robotics camps says “that nothing can compare to physically building and putting together something with your own hands. It is the most rewarding thing I think anyone can do.”

 

To showcase what the students learned throughout the camp--and to have a little fun--Nordstrom held the Robotics Challenge 2009, a competition pitting the students and their robots against each other in a rectangular arena.

 

“It was a head-to-head competition between all of the participants in the academy, and it really gave them a chance to show off what they accomplished,” said Nordstrom. “Besides trying to push each other out of the ring, there were some added challenges like collecting items for points and getting the collected items safely into their nest.”

 

Teams, such as the Metabots and the Terminators, focused on building a robot to push others out of the ring, and others, like the Arctic Force Penguins, focused on building a robot to pick up items, which gave added points to the team.

 

“Each team had their own square in the arena and the robots had to go out and pick up blocks, which could either give you points or take them away if you didn’t pick up the right ones,” said Foce. “My team, Dees Robots, built our robot to pick up hard to reach objects, so it was much smaller than others and more compact and it even had a claw to grasp the blocks better.”

 

Not only did the students build robots for the competition, but Will Butterworth, from Nashville, and fellow campers built an air-compressed shooter, which shot Robotics Academy T-shirts into the audience of family members and friends.

 

The winning teams basked in glory during an award ceremony right after the competition. The Arctic Force Penguins swept up the first place prize. Regardless of the awards, many of the students were just thankful for the opportunity to compete and show what they could do.

 

“It is a chance for us to release our creativity that is just dying to come out,” says Foce. “Robotics Academy is the perfect outlet for us.”

 

After receiving such positive feedback from the parents and students, Nordstrom said the three different offerings of Robotics Academy will definitely continue in the future. “With such a high caliber of students attending Robotics Academy, I can’t wait to see what will happen next year.”