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Pupils put robots through paces Teams of middle-schoolers show off programming skills at CMU Sunday, December 02, 2001 By Anita Srikameswaran, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Looks like math and science could become spectator sports.
More than 600 middle-schoolers from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland showed off their designing and programming skills yesterday in the FIRST Lego League competition at Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Consortium in Lawrenceville.
Teams of five to 10 children put their robots through their paces in identical tabletop Arctic Circle research stations, rescuing a researcher stranded far from base camp, transporting fuel barrels and the like. Points are awarded for completed tasks.
As the robots motored along designated roadways, changed directions and dumped cargo without helping hands, it was clear that although the bright-colored plastic and interlocking dots looked familiar, Lego building blocks and the children who use them are a lot more sophisticated than they used to be.
Clapping, cheers and some sighs of relief erupted as the robots made their rounds. Through the roar, an adult could be heard encouraging a group to "Work together!" One young fan listening to the battle cry of stomping feet suspected that "they're going to break the bleachers."
The children, who had eight weeks to develop the robots and practice, were told about the course and the tasks in advance. They used kits called Lego MindStorms to build the machines.
"We create these tournaments so kids have a reason to learn applied math and science," said Robin Shoop, the Consortium's director of education outreach. Creativity was apparent in the result. Every robot looked different, from wide and squat tank-like vehicles to gangly moving towers.
Teams came from churches, community organizations and housing developments, as well as schools. Thirteen groups won trophies, six of them from Western Pennsylvania.
Some competitors, such as 14-year-old Sergio Hill, a sophomore at Allderdice High School, did not start out as programmer wannabees.
"I really didn't like computers" and hoped to be a professional athlete, he said. Now Sergio's thinking about engineering. "I like the way you build the robots and that you can make it do things that you want it to do."
Sergio, whose parents initially had to order him to join, has transformed into an enthusiastic leader of his team, the Technicians.
"What a turn-around," said his coach, Ed Jackson, technology director for the Hill House Association. "I think it's going to change his whole life."
The sixth-graders of Winchester Thurston's Hellfish of Doom reviewed the design of the Fishbot 2000, which scored 160 points for them in the first round.
As with the other robots, the brain is the so-called RCX module, a large, yellow rectangle that takes in data from light, touch and rotation sensors that are housed in separate Lego pieces. The children program the unit's responses to navigate the course.
A programming judge waited while HoD member Alex Zhai, 10, unfolded a small rectangle into a full-size sheet of paper bearing a red-ink scrawl of presentation notes. Then he launched into a talk involving "sensors" and "containers" and other buzzwords of MindStorms technology.
Alex, the youngest on his team, wrote the program for one of the robot's tasks in one morning, said coach Jeff Pepper, who has a software background.
But "I didn't do a thing," he said. "They got together every Saturday for four hours."
Hard work was the reason that the Polar Demons, of Waverly, N.Y., toted up 290 points in its first round of competition, said captain Jules Gorman, 13.
"I'm expected to be this preppy little girl who's a ditz," said the confident teen. "I'm not going to be. I love this."
FIRST Lego League competitions are held at the regional and national levels, and in other countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany. More information is available at www.firstlegoleague.org.
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