Roy High robot ready to roll

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Feb 21, 2005 by Tiffany Erickson Deseret Morning News

ROY -- Roy High senior Tyler Adkins watched two years of work pay off last week at the unveiling of a student-built robot that will compete in a regional match with schools in the Western states.

Roy High is the first and only school in Utah to participate in the robotics competitions put on by the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization in Las Vegas.

Adkins had participated at his former school in California and decided he needed to form a team at his Utah school -- but it wasn't easy.

For two years Adkins worked to find a faculty adviser and sponsors who would lend expertise and funding for the complicated and expensive project.

To participate in the Las Vegas competition teams must scrounge up some $6,000 to pay for the entry and for a common kit of parts and software used for building the robot, valued at nearly $15,000.

Roy's team, "Roybotics," including 22 students ages 12-18, was funded and mentored by organizations such as NASA, Boeing, Aerojet, MTI Electronics, Utah State University, Weber State University and Stevens-Henager College.

For six weeks students and mentors from sponsor organizations spent hours after school and on weekends putting the robot together. Faculty advisers, industry engineers and university students worked with the high school students in areas of design, machining, welding, pneumatics and software programming.

And after more than 400 hours of hard work, Adkins thinks they have pretty good prospects in the competition.

The robot is controlled by joysticks. It's fast, can turn on a dime, rotate any direction and was designed to lift objects that are required for the competition.

The entry also includes Web site design with a 30-second animation video.

"This project is more sophisticated than anything I was touching in graduate school; this is the real stuff of life," said Col. William McCasland, vice commander for Ogden Air Logistics Center, who attended the unveiling of the robot last week.

But Michael Carver, computer numerical controlled machining teacher at the school and faculty adviser on the project, said the most important thing the students walked away with was a lesson in working together.

"This is the best catalyst I have ever seen to make kids understand they have to work together," Carver said. "It was a metamorphosis. There were arguments, differences, opinions. And then to see everybody pull together for a common goal ... it was a pleasure."

He said it was also a good way to put to work the practical knowledge they learn in the classroom.

Team mentor Pattie Adkins, Tyler's mom and a software engineer for Boeing, said the project has given the youths a real sense of accomplishment and a can-do attitude.

"At the beginning, looking at the project, they were a little overwhelmed. But I think now they are braver about trying things they wouldn't have tried otherwise."

About 18 team members will travel to Las Vegas for the regional competition on March 31-April 2. They will be up against teams from 38 schools in surrounding states, and if they win they will attend a national competition later in April.

E-mail: terickson@desnews.com