| 05/16/2007 |
| Kids' robots get things moving |
| Jessica Selby , Daily Times |
| How
does a pilot know how to position the plane on the runway to
prepare for takeoff? Another person directs him. Those are only two examples of careers in the transportation industry. This week, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation has joined the Federal Highway Administration and the University of Rhode Island Transportation Center to celebrate National Transportation Week through a series of activities and events. The goal of the week-long commemoration, according to Rebekah Gendron, co-president of the Rhode Island Technology Educators Association (RITEA), is to recognize the importance of technology and the myriad careers that are related to transportation. Each day this week, the agencies will be holding various events to bring attention to the many rewarding career opportunities that the technology industry has to offer, Gendron said. On Monday, the three agencies joined forces to hold the third annual robotics challenge and poster contest at URI. This year's theme was "Careers in Transportation." Students who participated in the challenge were each asked to create a poster board that depicted a specific career in transportation and then build a robot that could complete a number of tasks related to transportation. Each robot had to be able to pick up a load of debris, pick up passengers at a train station, move a section of a bridge to a new foundation, taxi a plane into position for take-off and check in at a weigh station. It was an invitation only-event, according to Gendron, and students from Knotty Oak Middle School in Coventry were among those invited. Only schools that offer technology-based education were invited, with the exception of three, Gendron said. Those three schools were selected to provide a well-rounded mix of schools from around the state, she said. "Transportation is one of the main topics that we cover in tech education classes, so it just seemed like a natural fit to invite technology students and teachers here, and because this competition, we figured, was also a nice way to bring what they are already learning about to the next level," Gendron said. Once the invitations were distributed, the participating students began working on their entries. Students from Coventry made it to the final four, but no further. Their teacher, Rebecca Horton, attributes their final score at this event to their commitment to another event last week. "We only had a week to prepare for this because we had the robotics park last weekend, so this was a little stressful, but it was fun at the same time," Horton said. Shane Kirkland, a seventh-grade student at the school, operated the robot in the physical part of the competition. Although the robot is equipped with an "RCX brick" - a pre-programmed device that allows the robot to accomplish its assigned tasks - the initial placement of the robot is critical in its ability to complete the tasks, he said. "We built a basic robot so that it would move and then added attachments so it could complete the tasks in the challenge," Kirkland said. "We put a skid plate on it to stop it when we needed to, both touch and light sensors to help it to stay in line, a fork lift to lift the bridge, and rollers that attached to the side of the robot to help us keep it in line." Despite the robot's many features, it still failed the task. According to Kirkland, "it's trial and error every single time." "We had as many tries on the practice board as we wanted and our robot always did great, but we only had two tries on the competition board to complete the tasks and we never did it perfectly there," he said. "It is a constant trial and error and it takes a long time to get it perfect, so if we had had more practice runs on the competition board, I know we would have done better." Just being a part of competition is honor in itself, according to Gendron. "Sure it's a great honor for a school to win at this competition, but it is still a nice opportunity for a school to be a part of an event such as this," Gendron said. "It's a really tough challenge and it allows the students to improve their skills every time they participate." Yesterday, the University of Rhode Island hosted another tri-agency event to commemorate National Transportation Week. Kirk and Whales Hall hosted high school students from around the state. The students who visited the school got to experience first hand interactive aspects of civil engineering such as engineering and highway design, water resources, environmental factors, hazardous material concerns and drainage issues that civil engineers are faced with on a daily basis. Students from West Warwick High School were among those attending that event.
|