Middlesex County College hosts robots
BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Lawrence Nichols from Franklin K. Lane High School in Queens, N.Y., explains how his team’s robot will make use of Sir Isaac Newton’s law of gravity at the Build for Tomorrow competition at Middlesex County College Aug. 27.

EDISON — There are any number of ways to get a thing done.

But as many educators will tell you, one of the hardest things to do is to get kids interested in mathematics and the sciences.

"Build for Tomorrow," a five-day workshop at Middlesex County College last week, provided groups of high school teachers and administrators; two from New Jersey, three from New York City and one from Texas, an opportunity to learn how to do just that.

The event was sponsored by the New Jersey division of the National Center for Advanced Technological Education. The teams learned how to build miniature robots and run them in a competition.

The program, now in its fifth year, has been a hit, said Jack Waintraub, NJCATE’s executive director.

"The impact is really incredible," he said.

The aim is for the participants to be able to take what they’ve learned back to their schools and get students involved in doing the very same thing.

For the first two days, the educators receive training in teamwork, how to manage technological projects and how to raise funds for similar programs in their districts.

For the next two days, each team received a robot kit consisting of a specialized Lego set, electrical motors, light sensors and mechanical levers, all powered by a sophisticated National Instruments software program.

With the help of a consulting engineer, they designed and built the robots. Each team ran its robot in a competition on the final day.

The robots have a simple task: to pick up Styrofoam balls and move them from one end of a table top to a designated location on the other and back.

And that’s where the different ways to do things comes in.

The Texas team designed its robot to resemble a long-horned steer, horns and all. It lifts the balls forklift-style.

One of the New York City teams designed its robot around a basketball theme. It scoops the balls into a makeshift hoop.

"It’s good for students to see that just as we have different ways of doing things, so do they," said Bill Swanson, a math teacher from El Paso’s Montwood High School.

"It’s a lot of fun," he said. "And there’s a lot of functionality to it."

The teamwork aspect is crucial, said Heidy Bautista from the Dr. Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts in Queens.

"You need a team," she said. "The project wouldn’t work without different heads coming together."

Casey Gavinski, an engineer with National Instruments, was one of the competition judges.

"The No. 1 thing we look for is the level of mechanical complication," he said. "But definitely creativity plays in."

Waintraub said the basic idea is to unite educators from across the math and science disciplines as well as involve English teachers.

"In Newark, they’ve embraced this," he said. "They have a robotics coordinator for the whole school system.

"The goal is to improve technological education and to get students to go into [math, science and engineering] fields," Waintraub said.

"We’re a rookie school in this program," said Charles Ries, a physics teacher at Newark’s Malcolm X Shabazz High School.

Ries said his school is ready to get a robotics program up and running for the new school year. "No doubt about it," he said. "We already sent three students to the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s summer camp. We’re excited."