The Robotics program at Wylie High School (WHS) is just really getting started. It’s one team competed at its first competition at Abilene Christian University Big Country Round-Up V5RC on Sat., Feb. 7, and for their first outing placed in the top 10.
The team of four — three juniors and one sophomore — started the road to this meet last summer when Mr. John Vann, the Robotics coach and engineering and IT teacher at WHS, was able to secure all the equipment for the robot through a large grant.
Juniors Luke Preston, Wyatt Fordyce and Tyler Hawks, and sophomore Ardonne Alvarez believe that robotics inspires independent and critical thinking, problem-solving and provides a challenging platform for creativity that’s outside the norms such as band, art and theatre.
According to the boys, robotics is not like “Battlebots” where robots dismember others in a fighting ring. It’s quite the contrary. Instead, the goal is to create a robot that completes specific tasks successfully and more efficiently than other robots competing in the arena. Sounds simple, right?
Fordyce said his team has spent countless hours since last summer learning how to achieve this objective.
“Most Saturdays, we work on the robot, making observations and then changes.”
Preston added that it’s a constant process. “So, every time we find a new problem, we have to take the robot apart. It’s time-in-tensive especially since we have never done this before.”
Vann said each team member has a different role in the process, which includes a builder, a driver, a project manager, a 3D engineer and a journalist. The team takes a basic robot from a kit and engineers it into their own vision through trial and error and research.
With the program in its initial stages, Vann believes it is off to a great start. In addition to competing, his students have taken their passion for robotics into the community. They hosted a Unified Special Olympics robotics competition at Wylie Per-forming Arts Center on
Tuesday, Jan. 20 for students from Wy-lie’s two junior high campuses as well as helped run the Special Olympics SOTX State Competition on Friday, Feb. 13.
Currently, there are no criteria to participate in robotics, but the time commitment is pretty extensive and “the season” is year-round. At this time, there are no expenses, which Vann believes may change as the program expands.