Playing hookie at the FIRST Robotics Competition : Pure Pedantry

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

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Playing hookie at the FIRST Robotics Competition

Category: Teaching • Technology
Posted on: April 4, 2008 4:56 PM, by NotoriousLTP

I didn't have much to do this afternoon, so I played hookie and went down to the FIRST Robotics Competition. The competition pits bands of high school students (and their engineer/mentors) in a contest to see who can build the best robot for an assigned task. At the moment the local competition (the national competition is in Georgia, I think) is going on in the Javits center in Manhattan.

This convention is a true festivus of geekiness. I kid you not: I have never seen such a raucous bunch of robotics nerds in my life. It was like the party scene from Real Genius. At one point the entire bleachers were dancing to that Chumbawamba song. (I don't feel I need to specify which one. They only had one that anyone has every heard.)

I was psyched to see so many students committed to science and engineering like this. As I understand it, scholarships are also available for teams that do particularly well. I certainly didn't have anything this cool when I was in high school. Sure I went to some science fairs, but I think at one of them the best idea I had was to measure the heights of plants under different conditions. It was pretty lame.

What are the robots supposed to do? What are the rules of this game? That is a very good question. I kind of felt like I was watching cricket: lots of movement going on the significance of which was lost on me. Anyway, if you would like to see it yourself and you are in the NY area, it is running til Sunday and admission is free.

Below are some pictures I took of the proceedings (click to enlarge).

Yes, that is actually someone dressed as a Storm Trooper. I love geeks!

UPDATE: So I actually found a video that has the rules of the game the robots are playing. Things make much more sense now.

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Comments

My favorite high school memories involve being part of F.I.R.S.T. The rules of the game, as well as the arena, change each year. Once the plans for each are released, teams have 6 weeks to design and build their bots. I even got to meet Dean Kamen at Nationals once. It is an amazing competition.

Posted by: mlf | April 4, 2008 6:34 PM