UCLA engineering students put expertise to use by mentoring high school robotics club
Adam Botach, 17, works on his robot to enter in robotics competitions. UCLA engineering students help Adam and other students at Beverly Hills High School build robots and prepare for tournaments, which are part of a robotics competition program coordinated by a nonprofit organization.
By alexander moskowitz
Feb. 23, 2012 8:17 a.m.
Students work on a contraption to enter into a tournament. They must build a robot that can shoot basketballs into hoops and balance on a seesaw-like bridge.
Amid midterms and college stress, a group of UCLA engineering students have spent almost every day of winter quarter working with Beverly Hills High School students, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning.
For the past six weeks, high school robotics teams across the United States have been racing to design, build and program workable robots to participate in tournaments. They have been accompanied by a council of industry professionals and college student engineers, including students from UCLA.
QSi Tran, Peter Shao and Nicole Voyen all worked on the same robotics team at Dos Pueblos Senior High, and wanted to put their expertise to good use now that they are in college, they said. They began working with the Beverly Hills robotics team, which is the closest to UCLA, in early January, helping the high school students prepare for the upcoming competitions.
The tournaments are part of the robotics competition program coordinated by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a nonprofit organization that promotes interest in science and technology among students.
The spirit of the organization is to inspire well-roundedness, from engineering skills to entrepreneurship, said Tran, a first-year aerospace engineering student at UCLA and robotics mentor.
“That’s really why I wanted to come back (to working with a robotics team) and help,” he said. “(I) really just want to spread that message.”
The robotics challenge changes every year. This year, participants are required to design and build a robot that can shoot basketballs into hoops and balance on a seesaw-like bridge.
While several members on the Beverly Hills High team have made robots in the past, they appreciate help from the UCLA mentors, said Mathew Simon, a Beverly Hills High junior and build captain.
“(Dos Pueblos Senior High’s team) is almost famous in the Los Angeles region for having built some of the best robots you’ll ever see,” Mathew said.
Mathew, who has been involved with FIRST since middle school, can create photo-realistic computer renderings of his designs and, in his free time, assembles his own pet projects. But he said he still goes to his UCLA mentors for any questions he might have.
Whether the mentors can attribute their skills to robotics experience in high school or their education at UCLA, they really know what they’re doing, said Eileen Kahn, the robotics adviser at Beverly Hills High.
The UCLA mentors have especially helped with manufacturing custom parts, Tran said. Beverly Hills students Priya Sumeran and Hee Oh, for example, have recently learned how to make parts using a lathe, a tool for shaping wood and metal.
“(Oh) just finished his first solo part (Monday) that we didn’t help him with, so that was kind of an exciting moment for him and for us,” Tran said. “It’s nice being able to say, “˜Now we’ve taught you these skills, go out and build your own part.'”
In the team’s fifth week of work, two students lifted a 120-pound tower of metal, conveyor belts, air-powered pneumatics systems, modular circuits and a rotating turret off a worktable.
“I’m really scared right now,” Priya, another build captain, said to her fellow students. “My life is in your hands.”
At 4 feet 8 inches tall, the Beverly Hills High junior would likely not leave the school without injury if the machine fell on top of her.
Yet, without a sign of hesitation, Priya perched herself beneath the robot and began drilling.
Despite a few last-minute struggles, the Beverly Hills team completed a working robot exactly at their 11:59 p.m. deadline Tuesday, said Shao, first-year electrical engineering student and a robotics mentor.
The deadline isn’t necessarily enforced, but they try to meet it regardless.
“We’re on the honor system,” said Tammy Leon, a 16-year-old Beverly Hills High student.
Mathew said he is confident the Beverly Hills High robot can play the basketball-inspired game fairly well come March 15, when 66 Los Angeles regional teams will compete in Long Beach.
