News : Iowa\'s high school robot builders begin 2011-12 FTC challenge in Vinton

VS team members Nick Stout and Matthew Uthoff discuss the course with teacher Marsha Furlong.

Students saw, and felt, the obstacles of the 2011 FTC course at the VSHS gym Saturday.

The Benton Community team members share their thoughts with each other about the course.

Participants measured the course so they can more precisely program their robots.

Seeing the 2011-12 course was the last event of the day for the FTC teams, teachers and sponsors.

'Bowled Over:' Iowa HS robot builders met in Vinton for their first look at the 2011-12 FTC course.

Teacher Bill Sutton and the Benton robotics team competed in last year's FTC.

Robot building: VSHS and Benton students will make their own robots for the 2011-12 FTC event.

While most Iowans were glued to the TV on Saturday, cheering on the Cyclones or Hawkeyes as they tried to move a football, hundreds of others were gathered in Vinton, getting ready for another contest which also involves the ability to move a ball.

But the balls involved in this contest are not footballs, but bowling balls and racquetballs. And it's not people, but robots, that need to move the balls in order for their teams to win.

The 2011-2012 First Tech Challenge for all of Iowa's high schools began with the annual kickoff in Vinton. Hundreds of students, teachers and volunteers gathered at Vinton-Shellsburg High School to learn the rules and to get their first look at the course that will challenge hundreds of students for the next year.

Each team will build its own robot -- think of high-tech Erector sets -- in attempt to score as many points on the course as possible. They will program their computers to tell the wheels, gears and small motors when to stop and stop.

The contest includes both autonomous and direct-control challenges. In the autonomous part of the competition, the robots do what the teams pre-program them to do. In the driver-controlled period, the team members use video game controllers to move their robots. The teams score points in this course by moving the 6-pound bowling balls up ramps, as well as stacking crates with the racquetballs in them. All of this action takes place in a 12-by-12-foot staging area.

VSHS engineering teacher Marsha Furlong is the coach of the VS team. Three of its members -- Eli Rogers, Nick Stout and Matthew Uthoff -- were present on Saturday to see the course and begin thinking about how to build and program their robot.

"It will definitely be a challenge," said Stout.

VS team members have already begun thinking and planning what they will do to try to win this year's event and advance to the State and International contests.

"I have a lot of ideas, but I will work with my teammates to see what ideas they have," said Rogers.

Below is the video the students watched; it demonstrated how the scoring sytem will work in this year's course.:

[VIDEO]

The VS students, like those from the other teams, plan to start right away: There will be some scrimmages in October, where the teams can test their machines. For V-S and Benton, the qualifying tournament takes place Dec. 17, in Van Horne.

The sponsors of FTC include Rockwell Collins and the U of I Engineering Department. The overall purpose is to help better equip high school students with the skills they need to succeed in engineering at the college level. The FTC is the high school equivalent of the Lego League contest for middle school students.

Each participating team is provided the same course and the same equipment: A programmable computer unit, and a variety of motors, wheels and metal components. The goal is to build a robot that can accomplish a specific set of tasks, and to program that robot to do them.

VSHS co-hosted the kickoff with Benton Community High School, where math and science teacher Bill Sutton has led teams in the past two FTC competitions. Some of the Benton students attended Saturday's event wearing the dark green "Redneck Robotics" shirts they used in last year's competition, which had the theme, "Get Over It."

Sutton and Furlong both say that the engineering courses related to the contest are the kinds hands-on experiences that keep the students eager to attend class.

There were just two schools involved in the first FTC contest in 2008-2009. This year, there will be approximately 65 teams.

Rebecca Whitaker of the U of I Engineering Department is the coordinator of FTC. She spent the morning on Saturday overseeing the set-up of the course, welcoming visitors and organizing the event while sharing its history and purpose with Vinton Today.

Already, said Whitaker, the U of I is reaping benefits, as students who participated in FTC while in high school bring their engineering knowledge and experience with them to college. Many U of I students and graduates volunteer to help with FTC, serving as judges or referees or helping to set up the contest.

'Gracious Professionalism'

While the FTC is a contest, it is a contest with a philosophy that it calls "gracious professionalism." This means that throughout the contest, the teams help each other. They share ideas with competing schools, and also offer assistance to their opponents in case of an equipment malfunction.

"We talk a lot about gracious professionalism," said Furlong. That's because the FTC is about more than winning; it's about helping Iowa students to learn the most they can from their challenges -- and from each other.

Click HERE to see the Benton Community's web site with videos showing the course for the last two years.