Regional robotics event calibrates skills of innovative teens

Wentworth Institute of Technology junior Jonathan Cefalu worked on a robot during the robotics competition yesterday. (WENDY MAEDA/GLOBE STAFF)

Yesterday John Ward turned 18 years old. To celebrate, he spent the day battling robots.

Ward, a senior at Norwell High School, was among more than a thousand high school students who gathered at Agganis Arena at Boston University yesterday for the fourth annual FIRST Regional Robotics Competition. The name is an acronym for the phrase, "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."

"I love the building phase, the whole construction part," Ward said. "But it's a lot about promoting yourself, too."

The competition, which started Friday, pits high school teams from across the United States and Canada against one another in games. Each team had six weeks to develop and build a robot to participate in the game, assisted by their mentor and company sponsorship.

This year's game, called Lunacy, worked a little like robot soccer with two three-team alliances attempting to get as many balls as they can into trailers attached to the other teams' robots.

Mallika Govindan, 15, a sophomore at Nashoba Regional High School, spoke enthusiastically about the human face of robotics while watching her team, the Robo Chiefs, run tests on their machine. "We've been working on this for such a long time," Govindan said. "It's stressful; it gets harder every year. But it's so much fun."

The competition, which sponsors 44 regional events, is aided by 70,000 volunteers, said Marc Hodosh, chairman of the event. Volunteers range from past competitors to professional engineers.

Rick Peralta, a research and development engineer with IC Services who has volunteered for the past three years, said that watching high school students take on challenges in this forum is extremely rewarding.

"It's awesome watching these kids grow," said Peralta, of Norwell. "They challenge me all the time. They'll ask me questions I don't know. It's humbling."

Behind the playing field, teams created makeshift workshops, where members continued to work on their robots, calibrating the machines and running tests.

Ward, his team's safety captain, had packed bandages in his tool belt. "No serious injuries yet," he said, pulling out a Band-Aid for a wounded colleague. "We've been very lucky so far."

Hodosh said the competition is about training a future generation of innovators.

"Our whole purpose is to change the culture," he said. "Instead of celebrating entertainment and athletics, we want people to celebrate innovation and the kinds of things that are happening here today."

For Govindan, the benefits of being on her team are far simpler.

"It's so nice to meet so many other people who you have things in common with," she said. "I've learned so much from everyone here."

In the late afternoon, the awards were announced.

Bridgewater Raynam Regional High School won the Regional Chairman's Award, the event's most prestigious honor.

Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, and Brookfield High School in Brookfield, Conn. were the event's regional winners.

They will go on to the national championships in Atlanta in April.