Gloria Ferris

Tim and I just got back from the “AIM HIGH:2006 First Robotics Competion”.  WOW!  What an amazing experience.  This competition is combination Soap Box Derby, NASCAR, basketball, computer technology, and engineering wrapped in team spirit with elements of Woodstock.

The teams all start with the same basic starter kit but that is where the resemblance ends.  They choose team colors, mascots, design websites, and build robots which compete on basketball teams.  The robots are 80% student-made with oversight by engineers from nationally known companies who make sure that design features have certain safety standards.  The kids choose sides just like on the playground but choose on the basis of how the robot can work into a game plan.

Pit crews work on finetuning the robots when they are off the floor so that the next time their robot is on the floor it will function to the best of its ability to help its team win.  It seems kind of wrong to be calling these robots “its” because so much of the kids’ hopes and dreams are inside of each and every one of those robots on the floor.  It almost seems like the robot is an extension of the human beings that created it.

Wolstein Center this weekend is a place for believers.  You walk into the place and you can almost see the sparks of positive energy whirling around in the air.  You can see it in the sparkling eyes and huge smiles on the participants’ faces as well as their friends and family in the audience.

One girl was overjoyed when I asked her if that was a network wheel behind her.  She said “why yes, yes it was!”  I believe that she may have been surprised that I knew what it was but that didn’t stop her from telling me that it was a wheel because it all started with a commanility but it didn’t end there.  Each team number and the team members were on the wheel and the threads of the connections between teams and people just seemed to be endless.  It was a beautiful web of rainbow colors.  Valdis, take heed you have an apprentice in training.

More on the nuts and bolts and circuitry of this event later. But if you have a few hours for a truly unique experience hurry on down to the Wolstein Center, enter by the east gate and stay for the awards ceremony at 1 p.m. and cheer these wonderful teenagers and their teachers and mentors.