Developing a Robotics
Outreach Program
Zan Hecht and Justin Woodard
FIRST Robotics Conference
Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Outline
• Background Information
• Introducing the WPI-EBOT Program
• What we did
• What about VEX?
• What you can do
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
A Little Background Information
In 1995, a group of WPI students created the
miniFIRST Competition for Team 190. Team
members spent three weeks building robots to
play a game called “Savage Soccer”. Although
the game has changes every year, the name
stays the same. The WPI-EBOT program was
designed to expand on miniFIRST so that
other schools and teams could benefit from it.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
A Little Background Information
The WPI Plan
The WPI Plan was created in the 1970s to reform the way
students at WPI learn. Under the plan, there are no
prerequisites or required courses, and students can
fill their schedules with as many independent study
courses or projects as they wish. Students also
complete three projects: the Major Qualifying Project
in which students solve a problem related to their
major, the Sufficiency in humanities or arts, and the
Interactive Qualifying Project, which is unique to WPI.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
A Little Background Information
The Interactive Qualifying Project
“The IQP challenges students to identify, investigate, and report on
a topic examining how science or technology interacts with
societal structures and values. The objective of the IQP is to
enable WPI graduates to understand, as citizens and as
professionals, how their careers will affect the larger society of
which they are a part.”
WPI-EBOT was created as part of an IQP which explored
the “Education in a Technological Society”
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
A Little Background Information
miniFIRST + IQP =
Helping FIRST teams who want to help schools that
cannot afford FIRST
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
miniFIRST
•
Filling the “fall gap”
–
miniFIRST gave team 190 something to do in the fall,
after school started but before the FIRST season, to
keep students involved and excited
•
Team Building
–
miniFIRST gave the students and mentors a chance
to work together to solve a problem.
•
Student Training
–
miniFIRST compressed an entire FIRST season, from
kickoff to competition, in just a month, and gave
students experience in all aspects of being part of a
FIRST team, from designing and building to driving
and strategy
•
Mentor Training
–
miniFIRST pared one college student (usually
freshmen) with 6 high school students on each team,
and gave the those that had recently crossed over
from student to mentor the opportunity to experience
things from the “other side”.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
miniFIRST
Video Available at http://users.wpi.edu/~ahecht/MiniFIRST-03b.wmv
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Expanding miniFIRST
•
•
•
Most Worcester Public Schools have no
engineering or pre-engineering programs.
The Massachusetts Department of
Education’s Engineering Framework requires
schools to incorporate engineering into their
curricula.
Team 190 had started many FLL and FRC
teams, but there were many schools who
wanted something else.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Other Programs
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
WPI-EBOT
• Combine the best
aspects of several
robotics competitions
• Provide experience in
several disciplines
• Give schools a way to
start pre-engineering
programs that their
students can get
excited about
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
What We Did
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Overall Timeline
• Spring: Begin recruiting schools and
sponsors
• September: Follow up with schools, kit
ordering
• October: Teacher training, game development
• November: Build Season, on-site support
• December: Competition!
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Getting Schools Involved
Similar to starting a FIRST team
– Principals are your friends
• It is vital that principals feel that they are involved, and schools must be
approached through the principals, even though they will probably
simply refer you to a technology coordinator or science teacher. Don’t
forget that a principal has the power to shut down any program they
didn’t personally approve of.
– A committed teacher is a must
• If the teachers don’t want to be involved, but are being forced by the
administration to participate, they cannot be effective mentors to their
students.
– Schools want to see examples of the program (model robot, video,
etc.)
• Schools need to know that the program exists and has proven results.
– Money can be a hurdle
• Although running a WPI-EBOT team costs 1/10th what running a FIRST
team does, so things like paying teachers overtime may be more critical
concerns for the schools.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Finding Money
•
•
•
•
•
Within the schools themselves
Grants
Professional Development
Local Companies
Fund Raisers (bake sales, etc)
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Training Teachers
• Give teacher the tools they need to mentor their
students.
– We wanted to make sure that the teachers weren’t coming into
this blind, so we had to teach them everything from basic
engineering and programming to things like strategy and
gracious professionalism
• Give teachers experience working with the kits.
– Both the Robovation kits and the VEX kits have their quirks,
and teachers need to know what these are and how to get
around them.
• Provide materials in multiple formats (live, video, text)
– Not all teachers could make it to our training sessions, so we
provided videos on our web site and produced written
manuals that the teachers could read or give to their students.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Training Teachers
Workshops
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Training Teachers
Workshops
WPI-EBOT ran three workshops with the teachers:
•A workshop introducing the kits, giving examples of
how to use the parts, and teaching the basic theory
behind things like using chains and making
maneuverable robots.
•A workshop introducing the teacher to C
programming and giving them sample code that they
can use on their robots.
•A third workshop where we demonstrated building
and programming two robots from start to finish, and
showed the teachers how to use various sensors.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Training Teachers
Video clip from the presentation available at
http://users.wpi.edu/~ahecht/workshopclips_0001.wmv
All workshop videos available at
http://users.wpi.edu/~ebot/Workshop_video.htm
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Training Materials
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Training Materials
Written training materials available at
http://users.wpi.edu/~ebot/coursedoc.htm
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Working with Schools
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Working with Schools
• It’s different than mentoring
– It’s more teaching the
teachers than teaching the
students.
• Help the mentors help their
students
– The teachers must still feel
that they are in charge.
• Introduce the schools to the
fundamental concepts of
robot competition
– There are many things FIRST
teams take for granted, such
as scouting, driver training,
robustness or robots, and
gracious professionalism,
that aren’t obvious to
schools.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Kickoff
• Like the FIRST Kickoff, but smaller,
cheaper, and with less hour-long
speeches about “inspiration”.
• Live in Worcester and streaming on the
web.
• Simultaneous release of the rules on the
tournament website.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Running a Tournament
• Find a Space
– We hold our competitions in lecture halls or gyms, but any space
with adequate viewing and pit space will do
• Find People
– Don’t forget that you need people for crowd control, queueing,
reffing, field reset, scoring, etc.
• Make a Schedule
– Schools need to know everything at least a week in advance if they
are going to send out permission slips, so having a schedule you
can keep is important.
• Keep People Entertained
– You don’t need a FIRST level A/V system, but having upbeat music
always makes things more fun.
• Scoring
– Even if you simply use an Excel spreadsheet, it is important that you
have something in place to record and display scores.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Running a Tournament
Video Available at
http://users.wpi.edu/~ahecht/SavageSoccerComp.wmv
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Results
• Of the four Worcester Public High
Schools, three participated.
• Two of those schools now have FIRST
teams.
• Each of the Worcester Schools formed
two teams.
• Including Mass Academy and other
FIRST teams, there were a total of 14
robots at the competition.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Results
Survey Question
No
Neutral
Yes
8.6 out of 10
What is your overall opinion of the WPI EBOT program? (Average)
Was the WPI EBOT program a fun experience?
1.3%*
8.0%
90.7%
Was the WPI EBOT program a good educational experience?
2.7%
14.7%
82.7%
Did you feel you learned mechanical skills?
14.7%
28.0%
57.3%
Did you feel you learned electrical skills?
17.3%
44.0%
38.7%
Did you feel you learned programming skills?
29.3%
41.3%
29.3%
Did you feel you gained teamwork skills?
6.7%
25.3%
68.0%
Would you participate in the WPI EBOT program again?
0.0%
6.7%
93.3%
Would you participate in other robotics program if they were offered?
0.0%
22.7%
77.3%
Do you plan to attend college?
0.0%
9.3%
90.7%
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Results
Video Available at http://users.wpi.edu/~ahecht/feedback_0001.wmv
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
How Vex changes things
• Kits readily available from major retailer
• Kits are 3x cheaper
• Two competitions possible with same
kits
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
FIRST VEX Challenge and WPIEBOT
FVC and WPI-EBOT are complementary:
• WPI-EBOT provides an alternative for both outreach
and preseason training for FRC and FVC teams
• The same teams can easily do both WPI-EBOT and
FVC
• Vex season not compatible with FRC season, but
EBOT is over before FRC kickoff
• WPI-EBOT uses Savage Soccer game, which is built
around smaller, cheaper, easier to build fields, but FVC
provides the competition events
• WPI-EBOT is about Education, FVC is about
Inspiration
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
What YOU can do:
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
What YOU can do:
•
Start a Savage Soccer team
– It’s a great pre-season team building activity, or a good activity for a robotics
club that cannot afford the time or money to do FIRST. Those teams can
easily do both Savage Soccer and VEX (which three Mass Academy teams did
this year)
•
Hold a local mini-competition
– Invite other local FIRST teams or schools to build robots to participate. WPI
would provide the Savage Soccer game, you provide the event.
•
Start a WPI-EBOT “node”
– Get involved in introducing engineering into schools where there is none. A
FIRST team would be well qualified to provide the same level of support to
the schools that the WPI-EBOT group did, and it is a great outreach activity to
give back to the community. WPI-EBOT would provide the training materials
and support.
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005
Contact Us
• Email ebot@wpi.edu
• Website http://www.wpi.edu/~ebot
• Phone Ken Stafford at (508) 831-5000
FIRST Robotics Conference, Atlanta, GA
April 23rd, 2005