STANDISH – Doughnuts, juice, coffee and 82 pages of rules – that’s how the Bonny Eagle Robotics Team, BERT 133, started a recent Sunday morning.
“There are always a lot of rules for competition,” said Wilson French, team mentor and parent of team co-captain Peter French. “But you have to know all of them or it can really hurt you when you’re competing.”
The competition French refers to is the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, held annually in Manchester, N.H. Started in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire high school students to choose science and technology careers, robotics teams from all over the world descend upon the Verizon Wireless Center at the beginning of March to win bragging rights and a bid to the national competition with the robot they constructed in the previous weeks.
“We definitely don’t have a lot of time to build,” team adviser Ted Goulet said Sunday, Jan. 8. “Once the rules are released during kickoff, we have approximately five to six weeks to design, build, test and complete our robot for competition. We usually work right up until the cut-off day. Today is about designing and coming up with a robot that we want to bring to competition.”
After reviewing the rules, the 20 members of the team broke off into groups of four and began designing robots according to the competition’s guidelines. An hour later, the entire group reconvened, with each subgroup presenting its design ideas. By day’s end, the students had taken ideas from each group and had the blueprints for their robot competitor. With the design in mind, the challenge is now to turn the design into something that works.
“This is my first year,” said freshman Spencer Ratte. “I’m pretty excited to build. My older brother is on the team and I saw the competition videos. It looked like a lot of fun, so here I am.”
Formed in 1995, the mission of the Bonny Eagle Robotics Team is to promote a lifelong interest in technology and engineering, while allowing individuals to work as a team and show off skills in their specific area of interest. It was also meant to teach students necessary life skills.
It’s a mission French believes is fulfilled each year.
“This program gives students an opportunity to work together in a situation that is similar to real-life industry,” said French. “They work together as a whole, but they also work in smaller groups in each specialty like mechanics and safety. Each group has a job assigned to them much like they would on the job. It’s just great what this club and competition teaches them.”
French also believes the program helps students come out of their shells and allows them to participate in a team atmosphere.
“It’s a great way to get involved in something,” said French. “Not all kids want to play sports but they do want to join something. The first year my son joined, he was pretty quiet and shy and now, as a senior, he is co-captain of the team and knows he wants to pursue a career as an engineer. His growth has been tremendous and that is thanks in part to BERT.”
Aside from designing, building and competing, the robotics team also works together to earn money to compete.
“We are, essentially, a self-paying club,” said Goulet. “We get a very small amount from the school, which we are grateful for, but it doesn’t really begin to touch what we need.”
Robotics is an expensive interest. Entry into the regional competition costs $5,000 and does not include travel expenses for the team or the parts necessary to build the competing robot. The club raises money through bottle drives, donations, bake sales and other fundraisers.
“We do have a few corporate sponsors, but we always need to fund-raise,” said Goulet. “Thankfully, we have always been able to do so.”
If the team wins in Manchester, the students will get a bid to nationals in April, which is being held this year in St. Louis. If the team accepts the bid, they would have six weeks to raise the $20,000-$25,000 necessary to attend, a feat former adviser and current mentor John Direnzo believes can happen.
“We have done it before,” said Direnzo, who took teams to national competitions in 2001 and 2006. “Both times we were able to raise enough to go. It becomes easier to find corporate sponsors for nationals when you have a winning robot from the regional division, but you just never know.”
For now, the team is concentrating on building a robot to win in New Hampshire in March.
“We’re excited,” said Goulet. “We will probably work right up until the deadline, but it will be done.”
Bonny Eagle Robotics Team members Spencer Ratte, left, and Josh
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