Five hundred high school kids put forth their best robots in a two-day regional tourney that organizers say is more about hope and the future of the country than about competition.
Colorado’s sixth annual FIRST Robotics Competition Colorado Regional continues today at the University of Denver’s Ritchie Center. There, 48 teams are competing for a shot at the national championships next month in Atlanta.
Teams were given kits months ago to build robots whose main function is to collect balls. In the tourney, robots compete against and cooperate with other schools in timed bouts that take place in a mini-arena.
Students dress up in costumes, supporters wear Darth Vader outfits or even decorate their bodies in paint. But talking with the teams reveals that much more is at play than winning.
“When I first heard about robotics, I thought, ‘this is for geeks. This is not for me,’ ” said Ben Okoye, a 16-year-old sophomore at Ridgeview Academy. “It showed me a whole new perspective.”
Ridgeview is a charter school in Watkins that is also a juvenile detention center. Okoye said he’d had a troubled youth and was likely heading down a dangerous path before coming to Ridgeview. Now he sees a career in technology.
“This program makes science and technology cool,” said Russell Burchill, Ridgeview’s applied science director. “They see this as hope, as a real way out.”
Dean Kamen, the man who invented the Segway, started the FIRST Robotics competitions as a way to spark interest in science and technology.
“The goal is to encourage more kids to go into science and engineering fields,” said John Eiler, a coordinator at Denver’s event and an engineer with Stellar Solutions in Denver.
The competitions bring together diverse student populations and get them to work together, said Donald Lutz, who co-founded a nonprofit with his wife that stages Colorado’s competition. “You can get kids of all types interested in science and technology,” he said.
Maria Anglade, science teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School, began tearing up when talking about how much the competition means to her students.
“It gives them something to be proud about,” she said. “This opens more doors for them. They see other kids who are into it. This is cool. It’s not all geeks.”
Angel Cruz, 16, worked on the Lincoln team’s robot with a handful of other students.
Cruz has no home computer and four years ago moved with his family from Mexico. Yet, helping build the robot for Lincoln’s team has given him a career path.
“I want to be an astronaut or an astronomer,” he said. “I want to be in robotics. It’s awesome.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
