Super Bowl for Geeks
by Richard Read
Alana Sweat huddled with teammates during a tense pit stop in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by motor parts, cables and gears. The team faced a predicament straight out of NASCAR. Two out of their four motors had conked out. But this March 6 event was no racecar match, and Sweat was no auto mechanic. The 17-year-old from Bend, Oregon, was pitting her smarts—and her robot—in a multinational tournament that emphasizes brains, not brawn. Teamwork, engineering expertise, career leads and sheer inspiration are what count.
Engineer Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway (the self-balancing personal transporter unveiled in 2001), launched the annual competition 15 years ago. Today, more than 20,000 students compete in regionals nationwide, sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
On the playing field of Portland's Memorial Coliseum, the robots, sometimes controlled by radio signals from the sidelines, show their stuff. Some sweep balls off-court to human players, who shoot baskets. Others score by placing balls on top of the goals or by hooking a 10-foot-high bar. As the scores mount, fans wearing team shirts and flashing lights cheer from the stands.
Back in the pits, students tinker with computer code, coached by parents and other mentors. "I've learned how to calculate gear ratios, the coefficient of friction, wiring, electronics, and chain systems," says Shesi Xie, a Lynbrook High School senior from San Jose, California. Xie also mastered fundraising, helping to bring in about $12,000 to support her team. Each school team receives an identical parts kit from FIRST—with no instructions—and gets just six weeks to design and build a robot. The goal is to reach the finals in Atlanta, in April—and maybe to be one of the lucky recipients of $3.8 million in scholarships offered by 42 universities and organizations.
For Kamen, the goal is to open the minds of high school students beyond the role models of athletes or Hollywood stars—and to make science as appealing as sports. "Most kids have never met a scientist or an engineer, so we've got to change their understanding of how much fun science and technology can be."
Richard Read is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for The Oregonian.
