The last four hours, I have been building a robot. And I can still hear drills buzzing, people shouting directions, and hammers pounding from the other room. In front of me sit the motors and gear boxes that I just build. The frame is being shaped and put together as I write.
Ingrid, a fellow American student from Michigan, started a FIRST robotic team at our school in December, before break. When we returned building, designing, and programming started in full.
http://www.usfirst.org/
This is an awesome project because we are learning how to work together, how to use technical and programming skills, and five people will have the opportunity to travel to Israel for the actual competition.
The students working on this project are from UWCiM, the gymnasium, and a local technical school. Local students are all working together with us internationals to make this dream a reality - and a cool one at that.
The final robot will be about three feet by three feet, and controlled remotely through programming and a human controller. The challenge this year is like a soccer game, and robots work together on teams to see who can score the most points during the 2 minute 15 second playing time.
I am really enjoying the opportunity to physically build something with my hands, so often in school we write papers, talk about concepts and ideas, but don't create anything physically. I find a lot of personal satisfaction from building things, putting together motors, and trying to figure out how a robot can kick a soccer ball.
For project week, which is coming up in early March, I hope to find a project to make something physical as well, or make a concrete difference instead of superficially investigating something. An ultimate project would be similar to the work that I did in La Purisima Mexico two summers ago - building houses, soccer fields, or community development. If you have any ideas or opportunities you are more than welcome to pass them along!
That's all for now folks!
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