The background on another local story... Our friends, the Leibs, have been big robotics types for quite a few years. Jeremy, now at Cal Tech, was one of the big honchos on the Aragon High School robotics team, and Chris is doing the same this year. They build a robot to accomplish a certain task under a set of rules, both of which change every year. For example, one year they had to collect balls and place them in a container that was six feet or so off the ground. Two robots compete to get it done fastest, with the mostest accomplished, while working to stop the other side. It's not one of those battlebot things, where they try to destroy each other -- that's not allowed. The competition is through an organization called FIRST, the brainchild of Dean Kamen. Dean Kamen invented the Segway, but something he invented that is probably closer to our hearts out here is the insulin pump.
One of the main competitors out here is Gunn High School in Palo Alto. This year, two sets of students got in such battles that they ended up with restraining orders in place. This and the stress placed on the high school teacher sponsor has resulted in the school pulling out of the competition. Nothing like good old honest to goodness competition, eh?
1 comment:
Sounds like battle-bots may have been the place for those 4.
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