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On March 15 a group of high school students, graduate students, and professional engineers traveled from Boston to Richmond, Virginia, to enter a robotic creation into the regional phase of the FIRST competition, the largest robotic competition in the world. The group of BC High students and UMass Boston students and professionals, who call themselves the Rambots, worked together to build the robot according to the competition's rules regarding budget, construction time, and size. In Richmond, they entered nine out of ten competitions, and did well enough to go on to the finals of the FIRST competition in Florida.
FIRST ("For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology") is a "non-profit organization that organizes yearly robotic competitions for high school students, university students, and professional engineers to come together to build a robot." Founded in 1992, FIRST aims to "combine the creativity of the students and the technical expertise of experienced engineers" by holding a yearly national competition in Florida, with regional competitions spread out all over the United States.
The Rambots--organized by Anton Abaya, a UMass Boston computer science major who participated as a high school senior in last year's competition--include nine UMass Boston science and engineering students, twenty BC High students, and seven UMass Boston staff and faculty members. Professors Richard Eckhouse and A.J. Noushin acted as faculty advisors to the project. In addition to a $2,000 start-up grant, awarded by CAS Science Faculty Dean Christine Armett-Kibel, Abaya sought and found financial assistance from sponsors including NASA, Math Soft, Solid Works, and Softrax.
Combining the ideas of their fellow Rambots, three team members took the lead in constructing and designing the robot: senior research machinist Tom Goodkind; his assistant Francesco Peri, a UMass Boston undergraduate; and Carl Gruesz, a graduate student in the University's Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sciences (ECOS) Program. The project also required the help of many others. Jay Messana of UMass Boston Marine Operations welded the frame, and Captain Peter Edwards of ECOS helped ship the robot, while Mike Larson of the Biology Department aided the team with billing. Other UMass Boston student team members who contributed their ideas and innovations are Karen Madsen, Joe Walsh, Jim Malloy, Nathan Schomer, Igor Likhotkin, Gary Girvids, James Paszko, Matt Palanza, and Natalie Grant. The robot that resulted from the efforts of so many is a 130-pound machine that collects balls from a playing field, as required by the competition's rules, and measures over seven feet at its maximum height.
The FIRST national competition will be held at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center on April 6-8, where the Rambots will compete for a number of awards. Good luck team!