Young robot builders get insipired at kickoff event in Elgin

Now that the rules of the game, and the nature of the game itself, have been revealed, the tinkering begins in earnest.

Teams of teenage and preteen robot-builders worldwide are putting their collective brain power to the test to come up with machines that best their competitors' creations.

Fifteen teams of students in middle school and high school converged on the Elgin Technology Center Sept. 12 to learn what their robots must accomplish to play this year's edition of the FIRST Tech Challenge.

They'll design robots, build them and program them.

"Everybody now knows what the game is and how it's played," said Michael McKellar of Elgin, adult team leader and coach, a few days after the kickoff event. "It's kind of like opening day for the baseball league."

This year's game involves two "mountains" placed at the ends of a 12-foot-by-12-foot playing field.

"The robots have to climb the mountains," McKellar said. "We've been given a huge problem. So, it's all hands on deck."

McKellar's team, Got Robot, will first build a prototype, test it out, and then make adjustments as needed, he said.

McKellar said qualifying tournaments will be held leading up to the Illinois First Tech Challenge Championship, set for February 2016 at Elgin Community College.

McKellar, a graphic artist, has been involved in the international robot-building contest for eight years, having first gotten involved to encourage his children, Matthew and Kristen, to delight in the practical applications of science and technology.

His team, Got Robot, is a 4-H special interest club. Got Robot co-hosted the Elgin kickoff with the Blue Box Bots of Elgin and the Dynamic Signals of Gurnee.

With both his son and daughter now attending Elgin Community College, he said he remains involved because the annual competition is such a valuable educational and inspirational exercise.

"The kids come away all excited and pumped," he said.

Kickoff events were held simultaneously in locations worldwide. Now the teams are getting down to work.

Robots are built using a reusable, modular robotics platform. Organizers expect more than 5,000 teams made up of more than 50,000 students to get involved this year.

The students are given a lot of latitude, McKellar said.

"Everybody can choose how they want to build the robot," he said.

"They can build from kits or they can use their own home brew designs."

While each team is overseen by adult mentors, students tackle the bulk of the project's challenges.

"The idea is not for the adults to do the work, but for the kids to do the work," he said.

McKellar said teams from Chicago and the suburbs, as well as teams from downstate Illinois and as far away as Michigan, attended the Elgin kickoff event. He said about 160 people were in attendance.

McKellar said the nonprofit For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) foundation sponsors several competitions, including the FIRST Lego League competitions.

That's how Kristen McKellar, now 18, remembers first getting involved in robot-building with her twin brother, when they were about 9 years old.

Kristen said she's learned a lot about logic through the program.

"That's a skill I learned by working on robot teams, learning how to break a problem down, being able to break down a topic into smaller logical pieces," she said.

Last year, Got Robot not only won the Illinois FIRST Tech Challenge Championship, they finished in the top four in the 2015 World Championship.

"It was pretty awesome. It was kind of surreal," she said.

She said she helped program the team's robot to carry out 20 different tasks.

"I was the lead programmer. I actually ran the robot that year," said Kristen. "My brother was the main architect on that robot. He's a mechanical genius. I bring them to life."

Kristen said her father's guidance was a key to the team's success.

She said he was awarded third place, worldwide, for his coaching efforts.

"I'm really proud of what my dad's done," she said.

For details on the FIRST Tech Challenge program, visit www.usfirst.org.