TETRA gears up for second year of competition
Tualatin students enjoy the ‘sport’ of the FIRST robotics challenges
Jennifer Clampet / The Times
GEARING UP — Tualatin High senior Devon Frazier and junior Izak Filmalter look over the design for the Tualatin High robotics team’s mechanical design. The Tualatin Engineering, Technology and Robotics Association team plans to compete at several competitions this year with hopes of making it to nationals.
TUALATIN – A robotics craze is blasting off in the Portland area. And with a sponsorship from NASA and a budget of about $20,000 this year, the Tualatin High School robotics team has a drive to make its way to the national competition
The FIRST robotics program experienced a 100 percent growth this year in the Portland area. The nonprofit group had seven schools create robotics teams this year for a total of 14 teams in the Portland area and 23 in the state of Oregon, said Deb Mumm-Hill, Pacific Northwest director for FIRST. Nationally, the program grows by about 200 teams a year with 1,500 teams competing this school year.
FIRST, which stands for “For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” is an organization dedicated to inspiring young people to become leaders in science and technology.
“We’re just getting the word out,” Mumm-Hill said.
Last week the Tualatin Engineering, Technology and Robotics Association (TETRA) was gearing up for its second year as a participant in the FIRST Robotics Competition, to be held the weekend of Feb. 28 at Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
And according to the 30 Tualatin High students intent on competing this year, FIRST has created a craze around robotics.
“It’s growing fast in Oregon,” said junior Izak Filmalter, a second-year team member. “And for engineers, it’s more like a sport.”
But the “sport” isn’t like the usual physical contact and individual competitions that rule high school extra-curricular activities. This year the goal is to hurl a 40-inch diameter trackball over an elevated structure. The challenge is to do it using commands given through a joystick controller and relayed to a robot, which is designed and created by high school students.
But in the FIRST Robotics Competition, teams of robots are randomly selected to work together to complete a task. But the teams change robots during each round of competition.
“So even if a robot shuts down in one match, everyone wants to be supportive to get it working again, because you don’t know if that robot will be on your team in the next round,” said Ilana Walder-Biesanz, the TETRA’s marketing team leader.
According to the FIRST Web site, usfirst.org, the robotics competition is designed to get young people excited about working with teams of engineers and mentors from local companies in order to problem-solve and ultimately build a robot.
The teams have six weeks to create their robots with a limit on how much they can actually spend on the one that competes. But as Tualatin students learned last year, teams can fund-raise for more money to create prototypes of robots to test out mechanical design functions.
Mumm-Hill noted that FIRST has about a 92 percent retention rate for its robotics teams. The most common reason for teams to disband is lack of money.
FIRST works to help teams get started with grants from NASA, said Mumm-Hill, but after the first year teams usually acquire more sponsors.
Tualatin High’s team still receives a $5,000 grant from NASA but also recognizes 15 other businesses and people who help support the team financially or with in-kind donations, including Mentor Graphics, Tyco Electronics, the Engineering and Technology Industry Council, ESCO Corporation, Nike, Siltronic, API International, Fujimi, Tualatin High School, Portland General Electric, Leviton Lighting Controls, Autodesk, Portland Community College, Xerox, Rockwell Collins and the robotics teams from Wilsonville and Westview high schools.