The San Diego Sports Arena in Point Loma recently played host to a championship-atmosphere event with cheering fans, thunderous music, a spirited announcer, a huge playing field, coaches offering plays, last-minute sideline strategizing and feverish emergency repairs.
No, this was not a high school playoff basketball or football game, but rather the regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, held March 7 and 8.
FIRST is considered by founders and participants to be a “unique varsity sport of the mind.” However, anyone who witnessed the San Diego Regional Competition, sponsored by Qualcomm, might think otherwise.
“I was outside taking a break,” said competition participant RJ Sheperd, a 10th-grader at High Tech Village in Point Loma, “and I overhead a guy on his cell phone telling his wife that after the swap meet (Kobey’s, held outside the Sports Arena), he decided to check out the robotics competition “¦ and that ‘it was like watching a football game.'”
More than 40 San Diego County high school teams participated in the competition, including San Diego High School Education Complex’s The Funky Monkeys, the UCSD Preuss School’s Midnight Mechanics and High Tech High’s (HTH) The Holy Cows.
HTH laid claim to the Imagery Award for the look of its robot and its marketing and promotion of the team: black-and-white T-shirts depicting a cow donning a halo and clever black-and-white cowbell giveaways.
HTH and Preuss also earned the opportunity to move on to the national championship event at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta from April 17 through 19.
Founded in 1989 by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST is a nonprofit organization based in New Hampshire that designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math while building self-confidence, knowledge and life skills. Ҭ
FIRST competitions began with 28 teams at a New Hampshire high school but now include more than 100,000 students from around the world. Kamen’s vision is “to create a world where science and technology are celebrated … where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes. ¨
It is an exciting steppingstone for kids who may one day “cure Alzheimer’s or AIDS or cancer “” or build an engine that doesn’t pollute,” Kamen said. “Somebody sitting out there is going to win a Nobel Prize.”
The notion provides an alternative to more physical competition, he said.
“In this country, we have kids who think what they want to excel at is football or basketball “” to be in the entertainment industry,” Kamen said. “I think the balance is so distorted that it literally leaves our country at the risk of losing its position of leadership in technology and, as a consequence of that, we will lose our quality of life, standard of living, security, healthcare and all of the other things that Americans take for granted. We’ve got to change kids’ attitudes “¦ and fast.”
Sheperd, a member of HTH’s Holy Cows, said that each year the rules of the game and layout of the playing field change.
The robotic challenge tests teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules.
Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in competitions designed by Kamen, Dr. Woodie Flowers and a committee of engineers and other professionals.
FIRST redefines winning for these students because they are rewarded for excellence in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism and maturity and the ability to overcome obstacles. Scoring the most points is a secondary goal. Winning means building partnerships that last, according to organizers.
The Holy Cows’ mentor, HTH engineering teacher and department chair David Berggren, received the revered Woodie Flowers Award during the FRC at the San Diego Sports Arena.
Flowers, FIRST national advisor and Pappalardo professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coined the term “gracious professionalism,” a mainstay of FIRST competitions. According to the entry letter from the HTH team that led to the award, Berggren exemplifies the term.
The 25-member team wrote of Berggren: “Through FIRST, David gives us the chance to be a part of a team and get to know, interact and work with different students on a professional and personal level, just like the real world “¦ David has helped us look beyond ourselves.
Encouraging us to make a business plan, support our San Diego community, give presentations to companies and students and always treat our fellow FIRST teams with gracious professionalism: showing us that even teenagers can make a difference in this world. ¨
Berggren’s reply was humble. “¨”I am truly touched by this win,” he said. “It really is nice to know you are appreciated by the very kids you are trying to inspire. ¨
He commended the team as a group of responsible and dedicated students.
“¨”In addition to building great, clean robots,” said Berggren, “our team members have done a large amount of outreach, community service and mentoring. It is an honor to work with such amazing students.”
He added that all the teams demonstrate a passion and dedication for FIRST, the competition and the engineering challenge. “¨ A family affair, Berggren’s father, Bill, also took home an award for “Volunteer of the Year.” “¨David Berggren’s wife, Rebecca, and baby daughter Makena (nicknamed “Holy Calf”) attended the Sports Arena event to cheer on the team. “¨ David Berggren is optimistic about the chance of winning again in Atlanta. “¨
“Yeah, sure, it would be great,” he said. “But a lot of what going to the FIRST championship is about is the experience. ¨
He said that with more than 350 high school teams competing on the floor of the Georgia Dome, it will be an experience of a lifetime “” win or lose. “¨
“That being said, I do feel like we have a strong robot and should compete well. ¨
Sheperd summed it up by explaining that they prefer to call it a “cooperatition” rather than a competition. It truly is not whether one wins or loses, he said, but how one plays the game.
For more information, visit www.usfirst.org.