PEORIA MAGAZINE August 2023

S P O T L I G H T

FOR MATH AND SCIENCE WHIZZES, A SPORT OF THEIR OWN

Students Hunter Weyant, Eli Reutter, and Josie Hess work on a Mars Wars car at Metamora High School

Robotics competitions have taken off in central Illinois schools BY STEVE TARTER PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON I f you think those school robotics tournaments you’ve heard about in recent years are a passing fad, you might want to consider the spanking new robotics center built adjacent to Tremont Grade School. The 6,200-square-foot building, completed last year, holds banners that the Tremont High School robotics squad has accumulated over the years. They take their robotics seriously in Tremont: Team 2481 has qualified for the national finals every year since 2013, said Ben Martin, one of the team’s mentors who’s been involved in the First Robotics program for 20 years, starting as a high school student in Indianapolis. Now a strategy manager for Cater pillar Inc., Martin pointed to plaques

on the wall that credit sponsors like the Caterpillar Foundation and Precision Planting and over 60 volunteers that made the building possible. The building holds something else: equipment such as a CNC router, computers, lathe, milling machines, drill press and a variety of saws. There are also machines that the students built, each with a story to tell. Welcome to the world of First Ro botics, a program conceived by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway human transporter, who wanted to give math and science students a sport of their own. The thing caught on. This year, some 3,300 high school teams from 31 countries took part in competition using industrial-size robots that students have built and operate. With the aid of dedicated mentors, the kids do it all: programming, electrical work, construction, even public relations. Competitions at the local, regional and national levels have teams battling head FROM SEGWAY TO CENTRAL ILLINOIS

to head, with the teens often winding up helping their opponents. The unique nature of the matches involves team partnerships that add another dimension to the competition, said Martin. “We’re in the off-season now,” said Martin on a summer day inside the Tremont robotics building, which drew 250 people for an open house. There will be occasional activity as informational meetings are held for students interested in the program, but the first off-season competition will be the Robot Rumble, an annual event at Tremont High School that will involve 32 teams on Oct. 28. The real fun starts in January when the Robotics First plans come down for teams to study. “We spend January and February building our robot to compete in several competitions,” said Martin, estimating the Tremont team will number about 28 kids. Andrew Kunz, a 16-year-old student at Morton High School and a member of the Tremont team, got his robotic in doctrination with the Lego League, a competition open to grade schoolers. “It’s a lot of fun to build a robot, see it compete and learn from your mistakes,” he said.

30 JULY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE