Future Engineer, The interview.

Allissa Heartman - VIP Ambassador from team  #1711 Raptors.

Lunch With The Future

The high school students that are excited about engineering today, are going to be the engineers we all depend on in a few short years. When I attended the FIRST competition in Traverse City this past week, I met a large number of people and 39 robots. One of the people I met was Alissa Heartman who is a Junior at Traverse City Central High School, and a vital part of team #1711 Raptors. She was one of the people I had the opportunity to talk to at lunch. When asked what branch of Math, Science, or Engineering she was considering she talked about a wide range of specialties saying that she was not sure where her interests and talents would lead her. 

While Alissa may not have decided yet, some of the signs were starting to show. When she spoke of biomechanics and artificial joints she started to light up. The strongest indicator though was the bright sparkle in her eyes as she illustrated with her own arm and hand how the Luke Skywalker artificial arm would work. As she spoke, I could see that she was clearly visualizing the mechanism and its working, barely noticing that I was still there listening to her. I have seen this look before in the eyes of professional people who have found their calling. As she went on to describe other areas that she might peruse the sparkle quickly left and her glow faded as she moved farther away from the area of biomechanics. There was also something about the way people around Alissa reacted to her that made her seem to stand out from the others at the event. Perhaps they sensed something special about her. Her team, the Raptors in black T-shirts, is one of the teams featured in the TV 7&4 News coverage of the event . There is also YouTube coverage of the action.

TV 7&4 FIRST coverage of the event

Magic of Dean Kamen’s invention

Apparently Dean Kamen’s invention, the FIRST competition is working its magic. All the high school students, faculty advisors, and mentors that I met were all revved up. The excitement was at a higher pitch and more contagious than other robot student competitions I have been to. This is good. Part of the magic of FIRST is that winning is not the only goal. There is a wide range of awards that teams can try for. Awards are given for cooperation, for team spirit, for team supporters spirit, rookie of the year, etc. Which might explain presence of cheerleaders, fans with matching T shirts, each team having a person in a robot team mascot suit, and the amount of hair dye and face paint I was seeing. Veton explained is strikingly red face was the result of trying to wash the red hair dye out from the day before. 

Observations of the team’s money man on fundraising.

Veton Krasniqi is the money man of team #2771 Code Red Robotics.  He explained having been assigned that task by the rest of the team and how with their help he has continued to refine his sales presentation over the past six weeks.  It is a mixture of power point presentation running in the background while he makes his pitch.  He is now a veteran of many meetings with the decision makers of large companies, some of which he has been able to sign up as sponsors for his team.  He says his batting average is improving and that he is not done, he has to continue raising money with the hope that they will move on to the next competition.  Teams have a $5000 entry fee that they have to get sponsors for.  The teams also have other expenses such as tools and support equipment.  There are also the costs of traveling long distances and staying at the competition sites.  All the team’s costs have to be covered by sponsors.  The FIRST organizers consider this an important part of the potential engineers real world training.  Also the robots are remote controlled - to keep the team members tightly in the loop, rather than making the robots autonomous.  The more human the experience, it is believed, the more they will be engaged in the work. 

GO ROBOTS !

Paul F. Grayson - Chief Engineer
AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC, LLC
Racing to build technology that saves soldier’s lives.
390 4-Mile Rd. S.
Traverse City, MI 49686-8411
(231) 946-0187, (231) 883-4463 Cell
pgrayson@aimagic.org
AIM: http://aimagic.org
Robot Club: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/robotcluboftraversecitymi/
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