Rookie trophy awarded to Alpha+

By ELAINE SANDMAN

Staff Writer

Bosco scored highly during his first Rack N' Roll competition last weekend and brought home the "Rookie Inspiration Award." Due to the highly motivated team members from Bonners Ferry High School (BFHS), Bosco reacted well to the skills exhibited by the Alpha + members at the 2007 FIRST Robotics Competition Pacific Northwest Regional.

BFHS Science teacher Ed Katz explained that the robot was created from a robotics kit the team received. Team members were encouraged to use their imaginations and build a robot that could complete the necessary tasks during the competition.

The Rookie Inspiration Award celebrates the rookie team for an outstanding effort as a FIRST team, and because it illustrates the strong community outreach required for the project as well as an inducement to recruit students into the engineering field.

"As a teacher, it was truly satisfying to watch these kids connect their classroom knowledge with a real world situation," Katz said. "These team members had to shoot for a complex goal of combining the high tech electronics with the mechanical parts."

Despite taking six weeks, and the grueling final 56 hours, some of the kids reported to Katz that it was the most fun they'd ever had on a school project.

"Throughout the project, team members had the opportunity to participate with local individuals, business members and various engineering experts to achieve this goal," said Katz. "All team members participated in this project, no one ever sat on the bench, and each learned how to apply this experience in a real world setting."

Team member, Tristan Mullis, not only designed a grabbing claw with the Autocad program, but it was created so well that it actually worked from the original design.

"As a whole, the team discussed the tasks that we planned to assign to the robot, and I just took the input from that discussion to begin my design," said Mullis. "I also appreciated the mentoring I received from Tracey Howard at Encoder Products in Sandpoint who used my design to machine the claw for the team."

Engineers from various companies including Boeing and Micron, observed Mullis' design at the competition and discussed it with the team members.

Another team member, Jeff Howard, was in charge of the public relations aspects of the project and sought out sponsors and funding for the project as well as answering questions from the spectators and judges during the competition.

Howard said Foust Logging was exceptionally helpful with their support. "This was not a normal type of competition," Howard explained. "Even before we left for Oregon, there was strong cooperation among all the teams, such as helping with the crate to ship the robot. One team who had entered the event many times in the past, helped a rookie team that didn't realize they would need a cart for transportation during the competition by building it for them. Other teams even loaned parts from their robots when needed, which illustrated how much a spirit of graciousness pervaded the event."

Another team member, Brennan Tymrak said, that winning was great, but the best part was the sense of accomplishment and helping others to understand the teamwork that went into both preparing for the FIRST event and participating in a competition where there was a camaraderie amongst all the schools.

Katz explained that while observing his team during the competition, he was proud of how well they represented the school. "The team members presented themselves with poise and professionalism, throughout their interactions with the sponsors, judges and audience.

The team would like to thank all of the supporters, as well as former resident, Dr. William McCreight, who now resides Portland, Ore., for their outstanding assistance.