Winning first place in the rookie division of the West Michigan Regional FIRST Robotics competition was a first for IME’s Dr. Tarun Gupta, who mentored a team of 14 Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center (KAMSC) high school students.
“We were competing against teams that have 10 years’ experience,” Gupta said. “This was our first time, so our accomplishment was very good.”
In addition to winning the “highest rookie seed” from a field of seven rookie teams, Gupta said the KAMSC team, dubbed Quantum Ninja, also earned a tenth place overall in the field of 45 competitors.
Dr. Tarun Gupta (right), KAMSC high school students, and members of his IME class pose with Robot 1677 at WMU. The team earned a first in the rookie division of the regional FIRST Robotics Competition
The FIRST robotics competition challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules.
This year’s challenge required the robot to lift tetrahedrons, which are pyramid-shaped objects, and to place them on larger tetrahedrons.
KAMSC is a magnet school for academically talented students; all its students attend other area high schools. The FIRST project was extracurricular. Students worked on the robot at WMU after school and on weekends. They communicated via an Internet website: quantumninja.com/first.
Most of the work was done at WMU’s Parkview Campus. The KAMSC team was also assisted by WMU engineering students in Gupta’s computer-controlled manufacturing design class and by Randy Blalock, a retired Upjohn technician, who served as an industrial adviser.
Robots stack tetrahedrons in a match at the West Michigan Regional FIRST robotics competition last month in Allendale.
The KAMSC team members learned AutoDesk Inventor, a CAD program used to design most of the robot. They used sub-teams to complete tasks such as designing the robot, programming the sensors, determining the power pneumatics, wiring the circuitry, and testing. The team also had to learn about the complex competition scoring. Many of the students were members of several sub-teams.
KAMSC’s Tom McCurdy works on the robot at WMU
“We’re happy about how well our robot performed,” said KAMSC student Tom McCurdy, 18. “Winning the award was a great honor.”
Gupta is already planning for next year’s competition when he may mentor one or even two teams. “This year’s competition was an overwhelm-ingly positive experience for the team,” he said.
FIRST, which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” is a multinational non-profit organization that sponsors robotics competitions for high-school-aged teams.
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