4 Western Pa. high schools to compete in national robotics competition

Plum Senior High School’s robotics team has spent hundreds of hours designing, building and refining a 15-lb machine to compete for a national title this weekend.

But the 23-student team is fully prepared to watch their labor of love shatter to pieces.

Plum is one of dozens of schools that are part of BotsIQ, a Western Pa. workforce development program aimed at encouraging youth interest in manufacturing careers. The program, celebrating its 2oth anniversary this year, tasks students with creating weaponized robots to duel against other schools’ inventions.

High School students from Hempfield Area, Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center, Plum and Fox Chapel Area will be among the 50 teams competing Saturday for the National Robotics League Championship title at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ohio.

The national competition invites the top teams from about a dozen robotics programs nationwide to face off against one another.

Plum’s team has met after school on Tuesday and Thursday to work on its robot — even gathering on Saturdays closer to competition season, said advisor Bob Miller.

“It’s hundreds and hundreds of hours that they will put in over the course of the year,” said Miller, a district parent, “and it’s amazing to see them get excited about it.”

Program presents internship, industry connections

But there is more to the program than what takes place in the arena, said Craig Siniawski, Hempfield Area technology education teacher.

Students dedicate months of their free time to draft blueprints, create a project budget, fabricate or purchase parts and assemble their masterpiece. Teams often work with professional manufacturing companies to create parts the students cannot make on their own.

Teams are also required to submit engineering documentation, Siniawski said.

Hempfield’s team of 30 students compiled hundreds of pages of stress analysis tests, engineering drawings, resumes, cover letters, research and refinement reports and project management documents — an effort that earned them best engineering documentation among 70 schools competing at the state finals last month.

And because their work is judged by university professors and industry professionals, students often land scholarships, internships and employer connections by participating in BotsIQ, Siniawski said.

“I have kids right now that are working to set up an internship with different engineering companies, and they’re not even in college yet,” he said. “It just gives them a tremendous leg up.”

Teacher Jeff Mori rarely sees high school students as engaged as his BotsIQ team at Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center.

“This is ‘I built this from scratch. I took it from cradle to grave,’” he said. “(The students) will come in early. They’ll stay late.”

BotsIQ has been a resume builder for students applying to colleges or jobs post-high school graduation, Mori said.

“It’s that real world experience that kids just don’t have, other than maybe working at a McDonald’s,” he said. “It’s not the same thing — dealing with industry as opposed to having a job.”

Robotics students benefit from collaboration

Fox Chapel’s 32-student team produced two robots this season, one of which placed 7th in the battles and 3rd in engineering documentation at the state level, said teacher Ryan Siniawski — brother of Hempfield’s Craig Siniawski.

But even when the robots do not perform well, students still benefit from participating — including one of Fox Chapel’s lead designers.

“(He) learned a tremendous amount through the process and will continue his journey at the post-secondary level, pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering,” Ryan Siniawski said.

BotsIQ requires more than just engineering-minded students. Students on one of Hempfield’s former teams have gone on to pursue jobs in engineering, policing and welding, said Craig Siniawski.

“They were one of my best, most collaborative teams, because of their strategy,” he said. “You have the engineering kid doing the engineering and the welder who’s just making everything work in competition and fixing what’s broken.

“That whole piece comes together.”

Miller has even received marketing and social media help from students to spread word of the team’s progress to the Plum community and attract donations. The team is entirely self-funded, he said.

“You really see kids that have never been on a competitive team before get that experience,” he said. “You have one kid who’s the go-to guy for soldering … This kid gets to come in and ride to the rescue.

“He’s never hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning,” Miller said. “He’s never scored the winning goal, but now in that team environment, he gets to have that experience.”

The National Robotics League Championship will start at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. To watch a livestream of the competition, visit xtremestem.org/nrl-nationals.