The Rochester FEDS head to Wayne State University this weekend to let their robot compete against other schools.
In a workshop inside Rochester High School, a group of 45 students — mostly aspiring engineers and computer scientists — has spent the past three months somewhere between Legos and the grown-up working world.
They've been brainstorming, designing, building and testing as part of FIRST Robotics, a national science and technology program that challenges students each year to build a real, working robot that will compete against other schools' robots in an arena-like game.
This weekend the Rochester FEDS (which stands for Falcon Engineering & Design Solutions) will take that robot to Wayne State University to compete in the Detroit FIRST Robotics District competition. Last year, Rochester was a finalist in that contest; this year, the group hopes for something more.
"We all want to win," said Justin Murphy, a senior and a member of the team. "It's a team competition, it's not an individual competition, but for me, the winning shows that hard work pays off."
The competition begins in January each year when teams watch a computer simulation of a game that their robot will need to perform. They then put their robot through a product development cycle: they brainstorm what they're going to build; they design it, build it and publicize it. Then they take the robot to competition, where they see what the rest of the market is like.
This year, Rochester's robot weighs about 120 pounds and operates on six-wheel drive. It is intended to place a series of shapes onto pegs by being controlled remotely.
FEDS members are future engineers and aspiring computer scientists. They are kids who used to play with the advanced Lego sets. They say recent graduates who used to be part of the team now work for NASA, Pixar and Apple, among other favorites.
"It's fun to build the robot, to actually see it pieced together and do what you want it to do," said Sarah Yaqub, a senior, one of 10 girls on the team.
At this weekend's Robotics competition, more than 30 teams (including the combined Stoney Creek-Adams High School team) will show off their versions of the FIRST robot.
They've been brainstorming, designing, building and testing as part of FIRST Robotics, a national science and technology program that challenges students each year to build a real, working robot that will compete against other schools' robots in an arena-like game.
This weekend the Rochester FEDS (which stands for Falcon Engineering & Design Solutions) will take that robot to Wayne State University to compete in the Detroit FIRST Robotics District competition. Last year, Rochester was a finalist in that contest; this year, the group hopes for something more.
"We all want to win," said Justin Murphy, a senior and a member of the team. "It's a team competition, it's not an individual competition, but for me, the winning shows that hard work pays off."
The competition begins in January each year when teams watch a computer simulation of a game that their robot will need to perform. They then put their robot through a product development cycle: they brainstorm what they're going to build; they design it, build it and publicize it. Then they take the robot to competition, where they see what the rest of the market is like.
This year, Rochester's robot weighs about 120 pounds and operates on six-wheel drive. It is intended to place a series of shapes onto pegs by being controlled remotely.
FEDS members are future engineers and aspiring computer scientists. They are kids who used to play with the advanced Lego sets. They say recent graduates who used to be part of the team now work for NASA, Pixar and Apple, among other favorites.
"It's fun to build the robot, to actually see it pieced together and do what you want it to do," said Sarah Yaqub, a senior, one of 10 girls on the team.
At this weekend's Robotics competition, more than 30 teams (including the combined Stoney Creek-Adams High School team) will show off their versions of the FIRST robot.
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