March 16, 2007

Young brainpower to visit campus for robotics event

By Tom Dotan

The return of the annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition to UC Davis brings with it the exhilarating spectacle of fiercely competitive high school teams of budding engineers.

But amid the familiar sights to be observed at the ARC Pavilion March 29-31 will be a fresh set of faces from a school that is new to the scene.

An unlikely robotics team from Woodland High School will be making its debut at this year's competition, and they are poised to make a splash thanks to the help of a UC Davis student.

Lorenzo Rocha, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, has been dedicating his time and energy on an almost daily basis to get the fledging Woodland team primed and ready for the big show. That has involved organizing the team, writing grants for scholarships (entering the competition can cost teams as much as $20,000), assisting with design ideas, testing and redesigning the robot — and all while living in a different city and taking on a full load of engineering classes.

"This project has been a lot of work, for all the people involved," said Rocha.

Woodland wunderkinds

But Rocha, feels a personal connection to this competition and this school. Woodland High School's student population is predominantly middle-to-lower-income Hispanics, and so are about three-fourths of the robotics team.

One of the sponsoring organizations behind Woodland's effort has been the Chicanos and Latinos Engineering and Scientists Society, a UC Davis student organization that, among other stated goals, brings mentoring programs to high schools in an effort to encourage Hispanics to enter the higher sciences.

Rocha, who is a member of CALESS and grew up in south central Los Angeles, understands the importance of emphasizing higher education to students who might not consider getting a four-year degree a sure thing.

At Woodland High School, which has a minimal graduation rate and an even smaller percentage of those going on to college, it was through academic-type competitions like FIRST Robotics that he was able to put himself on a course to fulfill his and his parents goal of going to college.

"In my graduating year, there was a general decision by the class to not fall victim to the (dropout) percentage," said Rocha. "A number of us got involved with these competitions and were so focused on winning that even though we didn't have nearly as much experience and resources as the other teams, we were always a force. In one instance, we placed first in so many events that we weren't allowed to compete with the rest."

Experienced competition

The Woodland team is going to need that same determination. As a first-year team, it must overcome more than just an economic gap. Some of the teams in the Sacramento regional have been competing in this event for years, and the experience on top of the established connections that teams have to engineering firms puts them at a distinct advantage.

The Woodland team right now is about half the size of normal — a reality that does not go unnoticed by the team's teacher-mentor, Fred Schutzman.

"For some team from Sacramento, one of the kids could have a dad who's an engineer and with one phone call the team can have all the resources that it needs," said Schutzman. "With us it needs to be much more of a community effort and people have to pull more than their fair share of weight."

But that fair share has been coming, from places inside and outside the team.

'A community effort'

The students are learning computer code and how to use power tools on the fly. At one point, Schutzman, Rocha and a few of the kids stayed at school until 2 a.m. to finish testing the robot before a deadline. When even that kind of determination is not enough, people from around the area wanting to help out with the monumental effort have pitched in.

A moment of desperation set in on the team when they realized they did not have a box large enough to ship the robot. But averting a last-second disqualification, Victor Monjaras, a Chicano engineer from San Francisco who is familiar with the team, made the long drive to build them a crate.

"Those of us who've lived in poorer areas see on a daily basis what it's like when other people mess up," said Rocha. "What it's really about is taking charge of your future and pursuing your goals without being concerned as to how the odds are stacked up against you."

Renee Maldonado, director of student development and recruitment at UC Davis' College of Engineering, sees this project, particularly on Rocha's part, as a prime example of the college campus giving back to the community.

"Lorenzo told me that if it weren't for his high school teacher, who provided opportunities to engage in hands-on engineering activities, he would likely not have come to UC Davis," said Maldonado. "Being a role model to high school students in Woodland gives them inspiration, like the Lorenzo's teacher did, to follow in his and other CALESS members' footsteps."

Robotics rumble

The Davis/Sacramento regional competition will be held March 29-31 at the Pavilion (Rec Hall.) FIRST is a nonprofit organization founded by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway scooter, in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. More information is available at http://www.usfirst.org.

Tom Dotan is a News Service intern.