ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Carter Brinkler and Reece Archer of Lynn Vocational Technical Institute look at a robot from last year before designing this year’s robot.
By BILL BROTHERTON
LYNN — It wasn’t that long ago that Rosie the robot maid on “The Jetsons” was strictly a figment of an animator’s imagination.
Today, a Scooba vacuum can wash your floors while you sit and watch TV. A Looj can clean your gutters, Agent 007 can patrol your home and Dressman can iron your shirts while you nap.
Who knows, the next robotic invention might be developed by a member of the STEAMpunk Tigers, a group of some 30 Lynn high school students taking part in the FIRST Robotics Competition, which kicked off Jan. 7 at Northeastern University.
According to the event’s website, St. Mary’s (the Phalanx) and Swampscott (the Currents) high schools are also in the competition.
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We’re in the engineering lab at Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute, and Malcolm Paradise, engineering instructor at LVTI, is helping about a dozen team members try to make sense out of the 120-page rulebook.
Nearby, Carter Brinklee and Reese Archer are dismantling a robot chassis from a previous competition, and Eduardo Villatoreo and Nathan Witcomb are working with large, yellow plastic gears and operating a robot that was entered a few years ago, hoping to get some ideas.
Paradise is one of the faculty mentors, along with Michael Pickering (machine tool technology instructor) and Kevin Ankiewicz (programming and web design teacher). They will train students in whatever side of robotics they show interest in, such as robot design, electrical or mechanical design, fabrication including soldering and machining, controls coding, even marketing or fundraising.
The team is based out of Lynn Tech, giving students in grades 9-12 at the city’s three high schools access to engineering, machining and building facilities for the robots. The team and volunteers, which includes several retired engineers and working welders, meets every day after school from 2:30-8 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
It’s rare that all 30 kids are in the lab together, given the demands of homework, after-school jobs and the like, but every team member is an active, conscientious participant. And, yes, the team members and mentors eat together.
This year’s competition has a Steampunk theme, where robots must be able to shoot balls into hoppers, among other tasks. The budget limit is $4,000 and they have just six weeks to get the robot running smoothly and able to perform the appointed tasks. Two teams meet head-to-head, with winners advancing in the competition at district and regional events in March, vying for awards and a spot at the championships in Houston and St. Louis in April.
“You fail often, to succeed sooner,” said Paradise. “But 30 smart kids can make a pretty good robot. We are just starting the process, but we’re going at designing a robot full blast.”
Pickering said this is the 11th consecutive year the Lynn Public Schools has competed. “It’s serious business,” he said, adding that the team copped rookie of the year honors in 2006.
“Here in Lynn, GE is offering some excellent job opportunities. The company is having difficulty filling the jobs. People really need the skills we teach here; students are work-ready when they graduate,” added Paradise, who said the school administration is “extremely supportive, both economically and support-wise,” but he admits he’s a bit envious of the funding available to sports programs.
“No knock on sports, but our graduates make a good living off what they learn here. All of our kids go pro.”
For more information on the FIRST Robotics Steampunk Competition, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMiNmJW7enI&feature=youtu.be