Gracson Andrews, 18, peered through scratched safety goggles as he tightened the bolts on his team’s 4-foot-tall robot.
“We need 20 inches of PVC pipe; we have to cut down on weight,” the senior at Poudre High School in Fort Collins yelled to his teammate as he worked.
The team’s robot – a mass of steel beams, plungers, wheels and conveyor belts – was receiving its finishing touches before it competed against other robots. The creations play a game that’s a cross between soccer and basketball.
The Poudre team – Alpine Robotics – is one of 48 high school teams from 11 states competing in the Colorado Regional Robotics Competition, which starts today at the University of Denver’s Magness Arena.
Each team receives the same kit of parts and annual game rules, and then students have six weeks to design and build their robots.
About 1,135 teams across the country are competing in 33 regional events, with the top six regional winners going to the national championship in Atlanta. At stake is $8.2 million in scholarship money for the competitors.
The event is sponsored by a nonprofit group – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology – or FIRST.
The aim is to promote passion for engineering through a hands- on learning exercise, regional director Jim Beck said.
“We want to celebrate engineering and technology just like they are participating in a high school basketball game,” Beck said.
One of the schools offering scholarships is Colorado State University at Pueblo, which gives a total of $10,000.
“We can get the top students from here,” said Hector Carrasco, dean of CSU-Pueblo’s College of Engineering.
Only the robots may step on the game court. The teams use remotes to get their creations to suck up neon-colored foam balls. Then the robots must carry the balls across the court and chuck them at goals.
“My freshman year was a disaster. The robot lit on fire,” said Poudre’s Andrews.
School mascots paraded around the court. There were students dressed as knights, devils and the Hulk.
William Shafer, 18, of the Shawnee Mission West High School team from Kansas, wore two of the foam balls speared on the tips of his Viking helmet.
“Prepare to be pillaged,” Shafer shouted.
Overseeing the bedlam was Beck, who said: “We are severely lacking in engineers and scientists. The only way to have enough people to take over the thousands of jobs … is to pique interest in engineering.”
Staff writer Julianne Bentley can be reached at jbentley@denverpost.com.
