Rallying the robots: Robotics team heading to state competition

This article was written by Paul Catala, Ledger correspondent.
The photos were taken by Ernst Peters

The article can be found here as well.

LAKELAND – There isn’t a win-loss record, any batting averages, yards gained or goals scored, but to students on Lakeland Christian School’s Team RISE 7719, it’s the designing, building, coding and driving that has counted.

Team RISE 7719 is Lakeland Christian’s Robotics Inspiring Science and Engineering team and the first-place winner in the ROBOT League Championship held Feb. 4 at Lakeland’s McKeel Academy Central. Team RISE 7719 participates in robotics tech competitions through FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a national nonprofit advancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education.

FIRST was founded by Dean Kamen, an inventor known for inventing the Segway and other devices. FIRST operates under strict rules, with limited time and resources and teams of high school students are challenged to build industrial-size robots to play a field game in alliance with other teams, That is done while also fundraising to meet goals, designing a team “brand” and “advancing respect and appreciation for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics within local communities."

Statewide, teams compete in the Florida FIRST Tech Challenge, with a season that runs from September to March.

Now in its 10th season at LCS, a private, kindergarten to 12th grade Christian school of about 1,000 students – Team RISE is made up of students from sixth to 12th grades. It’s led by Team RISE 7719 coaches Darise McLoughlin, LCS robotics instructor, and Micah Hall, a mechanical engineering student at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland who mentors RISE members. The team has three to four regular meets per school year and faces other RISE Teams from Polk, Hillsborough, Pasco, Citrus, Sumter and Marion counties.

During a Team RISE workshop-practice Feb. 23 in the LCS Live Robotics Laboratory, 10 students put their school-built mechanized automatons in motion. As some worked on refining parts made of aluminum and carbon fiber, others took time to work on the robots’ assembly mechanisms, adjust parts and make modifications. They are part of more than 2.5 million student participants around the world involved in FIRST since it was initiated in 1989.

The LCS Team RISE 7719 will next take part in the Florida FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship Friday and Saturday against 56 teams at the AdventHealth Field House in Winter Haven.

McLoughlin, in her seventh year with Team RISE 7719 and fourth year at LCS, said older team members mentor younger students during school study halls, and many new team members are recruited that way. The new RISE members are then watched to see how they would fit into a role on the RISE Team: doing coding, building, developing a required FIRST portfolio, working with 3-D printers or working with the laser printer.

“When a student wants to join, we start with a visit, apply and then we see how they fit in. We’re firm believers in cross-training on different aspects, so if someone gets sick and can’t compete, we always have a back-up,” said McLoughlin, who lives in South Lakeland.

Team RISE practices during workshops held Monday to Friday from 3:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at LCS. Hall said this year’s LCS Team RISE 7719 maintains a perpetually positive outlook. He said just as sports teams might do, Team RISE also scouts its competition before an event.

“I think we’re successful through the outreach we’ve done, the way we’ve documented the process and the way we present to the judges are key. I think we have a pretty good shot at the Inspire Awards,” he said.

The Inspire Award is given to the team that best embodies the FIRST Tech Challenge program and becomes an ambassador for FIRST programs and a role model for FIRST teams. The Inspire Award team is also a top contender for other judged awards.

Besides building robots, FIRST Tech teams must also keep a portfolio of their work and efforts that contain team members' names, documentations of design, game theories, calculations, Computer Aided Design photos and engineering tables. The paperwork helps make the physical component of building robots more orderly and precise, said Team RISE coders Jeremiah Stabler and Jordan Nuthalapaty, both 18.

During a recent workshop, Team RISE LCS junior Jonas Streets, 17, worked on an assembly mechanism for a robot. Near him, junior Gabi Davis, 17, the lead administrator in charge of portfolio and outreach, collaborated with Streets. In her fifth year on Team RISE, she said being on the LCS robotics team gives students a well-rounded extracurricular activity in which to take part. She said even at competitions, other teams will often reach out to help opponents in what they call “cooperitition.”

“It’s such a unique experience I feel like no other sport can give you, and there’s a certain collaborative effort that makes it better than regular sports, I think,” she said.  “(Robotics competition) creates a community that I feel like you can’t get anywhere else.”

Funding for LCS Team RISE comes through sponsorships and self-funding events, LCS does not contribute financially to the team. In addition to LCS, McKeel Academy has a FIRST robotics team and a new team is forming at Lake Gibson High School.

Nationally, FIRST says it has reached more than 2.5 million students around the world since 1989.