More than 300 students from metro Orlando area schools competed in two robotics competitions hosted by Lockheed Martin, aimed at showcasing the impact of engineering to everyday life and inspiring them to pursue STEM careers.
Last Thursday, during National Engineers Week, 24 teams of students from Apopka, Freedom High, Boone, Dr. Phillips, Oak Ridge, Ocoee, Edgewater, Lake Highland Prep, Osceola and Olympia, put their robots to the test to complete a set of required tasks that included, climbing ramps and quickly collecting and storing balls.
“Prior to the Robotics Design Competition today, our engineers have mentored the students for seven weeks on how to design and build robotics cars and mechanisms for this competition,” said Dustin Bridson, Lockheed Martin Engineering Leadership Development Program.
He says, participating teams are provided with the same platform, an RC car, “but students have to build on this and design all the mechanisms to bring a ball down off a string, as well as pick up artifacts off the ground and store them.”
Dr. Phillips High School 9th grader, Elise Robinson, thinks the robotics competition is exciting, but a very anxious time for everyone as each team really wants to win. On the week-end leading up to the competition her team worked 12 hours over a two-day period to finalize the robot’s design, she says. And it paid off. This robot was judged to be the most innovative.
“Our robot has an arm attached to it and there’s a loop which can be tightened or loosened. We put this around the ball and it comes into the arm,” Robinson explains. “This is what’s most unique about our robot and the judges obviously agreed.”
Andrew Lavigne, a senior at Oakridge High School, was competing for the first time in the Lockheed Martin robotics competition, although he has participated in similar events.
“One high point for me is, always seeing the thing I helped create come to life on the field,” Lavigne said, of his team’s robot. “You spend weeks working to get it right, but you don’t really know how well it’s going to do.” He claimed their robot was the only one that had a unique system – a conveyer belt in the back for picking up the balls.
“We didn’t do so well as the RC car wouldn’t manoeuver well enough…. perhaps the robot was too heavy and that’s why it wouldn’t turn,” Lavigne quickly adds.
When the final scores were tallied Apopka High School nabbed the first place with Freedom High School placing second. Third place went to Boone High School.
Mike Martucci, Vice Principal, Oak Ridge High School, viewed the robotics design competition as a tremendous experience. It’s the first time his students have participated, although the global security and aerospace company supports a state-of-the-art simulation program at the school.
“The engineers at Lockheed Martin brought the technologies and the students have just gravitated towards it,” he said. “Now the kids see themselves as future engineers, future business leaders and future problem solvers – it’s amazing.”
Martucci said the kids were excited not only to participate in the competition, but were greatly inspired following the tour of the Lockheed Martin plant at West Sand Lake Road.
“To see some of the great things Lockheed Martin is developing which you might only see in movies, the kids really connected with this,” he said. “After the tour, two kids came to me saying they want to be like those people in the green shirts. They said, ‘we want to go to college, get our degree, wear the green shirts and help other kids’.” The engineers who supported the students throughout the day wore green shirts.
Tobi Allen, Community Relations Manager, Lockheed Martin, who has responsibility for STEM outreach, knows only too well how these activities help inspire students to pursue STEM-related careers.
“What’s impressive is that often times you’ll have students who maybe didn’t have an interest in STEM careers and because of the interactions with our engineers in the schools, they become inspired to join a group and participate. That’s most rewarding.”
Throughout National Engineering Week, Lockheed Martin undertook 17 activities and interacted with more than 3,000 local students across Central Florida.
