Willow Glen Resident

Education

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Right Stuff: Willow Glen Middle School students came up big in the Botball tournament. The five-member team (from left) Austin Chinn, Kendall Searing, Cassie Gallo, Greg Davis and Jackline Vo (not shown) took the Judges Choice and Finalists awards.

Chicken Monkey-Bot of Doom: this team's name says it all

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Willow Glen Middle School students showed off what they've learned in their robotics class at the 2006 Northern California Regional Botball Tournament at Santa Clara University.

There were 32 teams of high school, middle school and home-schooled students from across Northern California that competed using robots they had designed, built and programmed during a seven-week period. The objective was to program the robots to perform certain tasks, such as collecting and sorting items by color, as well as knocking items off a platform within 90 seconds during each round.

Willow Glen's five-member team, Chicken Monkey-Bot of Doom, won the Judges Choice and Finalist awards for its two robots, Chicken-bot and Monkey-bot.

"We named one of the robots Monkey-bot because it could climb over the pipe on the tournament table because it had offset wheels," said sixth-grader Greg Davis. "Chicken-bot was named that because it moves like a chicken."

Greg, along with fellow sixth-graders Jackline Vo, Austin Chinn and Cassie Gallo and seventh-grader Kendall Searing, made up the team.

"These kids only worked on this project for three weeks, not seven, because they were involved in the March 25 StRUT competition," said robotics and computer teacher and Botball coach Dennis McCarthy.

The students worked through their spring break, nights and weekends during the three-week period to make sure their robots would not bump into each other, McCarthy said.

"Part of the reason the kids did so well was because of their robots' reliability and simplicity of design."

McCarthy said the students' robots were about 75 percent to 80 percent reliable throughout the tournament.

"It was exciting," he said. "Their simple design was really effective."

The robots did at times damage each other, McCarthy said, but not intentionally. "Parts would fall off when the robots would bump into each other," McCarthy said.

With the help of parent volunteers Rick and Kim Guptill, Brent and Phyllis Chinn, Carmelo and Melissa Gallo, Stan and Maureen Searing, Grant and Maria Davis, and Tu and Dao Thi Vo, the students were able to perfect the robots, McCarthy said.

This particular group worked very well together because of their combined interests, he noted.

"Some students like the excitement of competition, others like playing with Legos and some like the challenge of solving the problem," McCarthy said. "Usually, kids choose robotics because of a combination of things."

This was the team's first year competing, and it placed among the top 10 teams in the final round and defeated both middle and high school teams.

"Now that we have been to the tournament, we know what it's like, and we got ideas from other robots on what works and what doesn't," Greg said. "We'll be prepared for next year."

Teammate Cassie agrees and adds, "Next year will be the revenge of the Chicken bot."

For more information, visit www.botball.org.