OPINION: Those who can build, got game

Apr 12, 2012 (The Wenatchee World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- It looked like a typical high school sports competition, almost. Saturday, the fieldhouse at Eastern Washington University was packed for a regional three-on-three basketball tournament. It was huge. There were 47 teams from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California, from as far away as Los Angeles. I have rarely seen competition more intense, strategy more complex, or an event demanding more of mind and body. I know I have never seen competitors or spectators with more enthusiasm. The energy was amped by the add-ons of modern athletics -- horribly loud music, dancing cheerleaders, thunderous cheers, announcers prepping for their pro wrestling audition, hyperactive mascots in silly costumes, anxious parents on the edge of their seats. Each shot at the basket was an event, each score a moment of triumph, and every failure keenly felt.

Except there were no athletes of the flesh-and-blood sort. Robots did the shooting, gathered the rebounds and hustled back on defense. The competitors were teenagers, from 14 to 18, who designed and built these extraordinarily complex competitive machines. These were students who might not be able to shoot well enough themselves to make the varsity, but are smart enough, and resourceful enough to design and build a machine that can rain in shots from the top of the key.

It was a remarkable science fair gone absolutely berserk. I came away impressed, if slightly deafened. I was relieved to see first-hand that the people who say today's students are either too dense or too lazy to really study science and technology are full of bunk.

The event was the FIRST Spokane regional robotics competition. FIRST -- For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology -- has a goal "to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders." The organization was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway scooter. There now are thousands of teams, all over the world, competing in dozens of regional competitions, in hopes of making the world championship finals in St. Louis, Mo.

No need to look far to find students who are techno-science addicts. One team I watched in Cheney was the RAMbots 4-H club from Wenatchee, officially Team 3801, whose slogan is "Not Your Average Nerds." In a gym filled with suburban magnet-school-trained math and science savants, they were holding their own exceptionally well.

The rules are complex but this is the basic idea: On Jan. 7 every team in the world is given the year's challenge at the same time. The game is different every year. This year it was "Rebound Rumble." Teams receive a kit of common parts to be used as the basis for their machine. They have six weeks to build it in whatever way their skills and imaginations dictate, then it's sealed until the competition. This year's game just happened to involve shooting baskets, and for bonus points, balancing robots on teeter-totters (it's a lot harder than it sounds). They compete in teams of three, called alliances. In the final stages the alliances are carefully calculated by students scouting out the capabilities of other teams' machines.

The RAMbots proudly finished 23 of 47, an achievement for a team only in its second year. They are a team of five up against teams of 30 or more. They are a team that built their robot in the basement of the Chelan County Courthouse, going against teams sponsored by aerospace giants, with $60,000 budgets and access to advanced design equipment and CAD systems. They received a Judges' Award for resourcefulness, cooperation and "gracious professionalism." I dropped by the RAMbots "pit" and the team members graciously tried to explain to me how their robot worked. I'm afraid my level of understanding of engineering concepts was not up to the task, but you could still sense their pride and excitement, interspersed by explanations like, "I always liked building stuff," or "I really want to pursue a career in engineering." The RAMbots, the self-labeled nerds that they are, are not so different from any other students their age. They are "hungry," said club adviser Susan Grinde, for something to explore, for an outlet to develop their skills and interests, to find people their age with the same interests, and for a little of the recognition they deserve.

So, onward RAMbots. We will see more of you in future years, and be glad of it.

___ (c)2012 The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.) Visit The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.) at www.wenatcheeworld.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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