Lunacy In Atlanta

Maui High robotics team holds its own in first test on national stage

By MELISSA TANJI, Staff Writer

WAILUKU - Tired but satisfied, members of Maui High School's robotics team said they had an "amazing experience" competing among hundreds of other high schools in the FIRST Robotics World Championship in Atlanta over the weekend.

Although the Maui High "Blue Thunder" team did not make it into the quarterfinals Saturday, the Sabers were the highest ranked island team in their division. Four Hawaii high schools were at the championships.

Maui High finished 18th out of 87 teams in its Curie Division. McKinley High School did advance to the semifinals in its division and finished 23rd out of 88 teams in the Newton Division.

Waialua High School finished 41st, and Moanalua High School finished 72nd. Both competed in the Galileo Division consisting of 86 teams. Waialua Intermediate and High School earned special recognition and received a judge's award.

"The competition was really great. It was nothing like anything we expected. It was much bigger, much louder than we thought it would be. The exposure was just incredible," said junior and co-captain Bryce Ribucan, via cellular phone on Sunday. "Just being able to come out there into the world stage and represent Maui and Hawaii . . . that was just an amazing experience. There are so many people to thank."

Maui High School automotive teacher Neill Nakamura, who helped the students build and maintain their 117-pound robot, said he was impressed by the team.

"The kids represented Maui well. They came together and they competed hard," Nakamura said via cellular phone from Seattle as the team waited for their connecting flight to Maui on Sunday morning. "They exceeded our expectations. This is only our second year (in the program) and to make it to the world finals, it's just not something we dreamed about."

The four Hawaii teams advanced to the World Championship at the Georgia Dome after qualifying in the 2009 NASA/BAE Systems FIRST in Hawaii Regional Robotics Competition held last month on Oahu.

The FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology ,Robotics Competition helps students discover the rewards and excitement of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

For the competition, students were given a common engineering problem to solve using a standard kit of parts and a common set of rules, but no instructions. Working with mentors, they had six weeks to build a robot, using their minds, innovation and teamwork.

This year's challenge, "Lunacy" celebrated the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's mission to the moon. The competition involved teams using their remote-controlled robot that carries a trailer. To score, robots threw "orbit balls" into the opposing team's trailer. Robots can help block other robots from scoring on their teammates in alliance competitions.

And the competition can get rough; Maui High co-captain Lea Pigao said a robot from a Michigan high school slammed into their Mau-E robot on Saturday, which jarred some wiring loose and was probably why Maui High lost a match.

But fortunately the team was able to repair Mau-E, (whose name was patterned after Pixar Animation Studio's robot character WALL-E), later in the day.

Nevertheless, Pigao said sometimes Mau-E didn't stack up to other robots. The Maui High team had much less experience than other schools.

"Our robot didn't compare to some other robots because of the experience they had. We tried our best," she said on Sunday.

Pigao, a senior, said because of her experience, she now wants to major in engineering.

Nineteen out of 20 members of the Maui High team attended the competition along with teachers and mentors. Mau-E stands around 60 inches tall with a frame made of aluminum brackets, sheet metal and poles.

The Maui Economic Development Board provided the Maui High team with a $5,000 grant from its Ke Alahele Education Fund, which provides grants and support to students, educators and institutions involved in STEM.

The robotics team along with Maui High's Project EAST Team, which received an award of excellence in the Project EAST annual conference, attended a luncheon last week with U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and the MEDB board on Maui.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.