{"id":384882,"date":"2010-03-13T01:43:35","date_gmt":"2010-03-13T06:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.eng.wayne.edu:\/\/ccf60a50858378181feade22f9997643"},"modified":"2010-03-13T01:43:35","modified_gmt":"2010-03-13T06:43:35","slug":"denby-high-school-first-robotics-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/384882","title":{"rendered":"Denby High School FIRST Robotics Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\n Denby High School’s FIRST Robotics team is led by Captain Breana Haywood (student, left) and Lead Mentor Murleen Coakley (teacher, right). <\/p>\n

\n The FIRST Robotics District Competition at Wayne State University takes place at Matthaei Athletic Complex Friday and Saturday, March 19 and 20. This story follows one of the teams competing in the Michigan districts, which takes place at several locations.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n by Derrick Bean
\n COE Public Affairs Writer<\/p>\n

Denby High School is one of 14 teams from Detroit preparing to compete at the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition in Michigan. Team 3069, or the “Rollin Stones,” has returned this year more experienced, better prepared, and hungry for more.<\/p>\n

FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” FIRST Robotics Competition consists of robots, built and controlled by students with help from adult mentors. Each year, FIRST organizers announce a new game and playing field layout in January when the teams begin to design robots to compete in the new game. This year’s game is called Breakaway. Two alliances will face off, each with three robotics teams, for a game of 3-on-3 soccer.<\/p>\n

Murleen Coakley is a 9th grade English teacher at Denby who specializes in Student Services and is the “Lead Mentor” for the Rollin Stones. She says the school administration asked her to participate in FIRST Robotics at Denby two years ago. “Students were interested, so we did it,” Coakley says.<\/p>\n

The team looks a lot different this year. “I have more boys participating,” says Coakley. “We have a larger squad. We went from 5 to 14 pre-college students.”<\/p>\n

There are only two returning members this year, captains Breana Haywood and Erica Green. Both students are juniors at Denby. They are also the only females on the team. They are both confident in their chances now that they have more help. “They are a very good team,” says Haywood. “I couldn’t ask for a better team.”<\/p>\n

The robot has gone through many changes. Green says the team replaced the back two wheels with ones better suited for moving on carpet. There are three remote controllers manipulating the robot: one to drive the robot; another for the plunger (a vacuum pump) attached to the front of the robot to suck in the soccer ball; and one more for the kicker that releases the ball into the goal.<\/p>\n

Robert Levasseur, BSEET’09, is volunteering time and services for the Rollin Stones this year. Levasseur helps with supervising as well as installing electrical lines.<\/p>\n

Coakley says Levasseur contributed important pieces to the robot. “He was very helpful,” she says. “He offered and designed several parts that are going to help protect the electrical parts of the robot.”<\/p>\n

Levasseur says he decided to volunteer after receiving an email asking WSU engineering students to help Denby students build a robot. “Out of curiosity, I figured I’d do what I can to help,” he says. “I have a lot of experience with building things.”<\/p>\n

An engineer from GM Hybrid also offered assistance with the building process for the Rollin Stones.<\/p>\n

The team’s robot was entirely built at the Michigan Engineering Zone (MEZ) located in the University of Michigan Detroit Center downtown in Orchestra Place. The MEZ, sponsored by the U-M College of Engineering, gives students from schools across the city the opportunity to machine parts, build robots and even test-drive them on a practice playing field. “Denby does not have the proper facilities, tools and equipment to build our robot,” says Coakley. “Many high schools in Detroit cannot support the build of this type of robot if it is going to be durable.”<\/p>\n

The robot, which took the team six weeks to build, has yet to be named. Coakley says they are waiting to see all that it can do. The team finished their final build session for their robot Saturday, Feb. 14, but there was still some programming and a lot of testing left to do.<\/p>\n

Last year’s team wasn’t able to qualify at the district competition. “We didn’t have a lot of teamwork last year,” says Haywood. “We have more people who are dedicated to robotics and willing to work and put effort into building a robot. The more responsible we are, the better that will help us get ready for the competition.”<\/p>\n

This year, the Rollin Stones are hoping to roll through the districts and make it to the state competition. Coakley says placing well in the competition all depends on how well you drive the robot using the remote controllers. She also hopes to win the Woodie Flowers Award (for effective communication between team leaders and their robots) and the Website Award (for excellence in student-designed, built and managed websites).”<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Coakley, Green and Haywood tried their hand at FIRST Lego League, an autonomous robot competition for students aged 9 to 14. The experience helped to prepare them for the FIRST Robotics Competition. “We did Lego for a year,” says Coakley. “It’s a good start for students to get them interested in the idea of competition. I think it’s good for 8th and 9th-graders. It gets them thinking about planning, designing and then executing their ideas. They learn good leadership and responsibility.”<\/p>\n

Haywood says she upgraded from Legos to the real thing because “real robots seemed fun.” She adds that you get to meet a lot of people and see friends from other schools.<\/p>\n

Haywood says she is responsible for making sure everyone is doing his or her job, and that everything is organized how it’s supposed to be. She says her experience as captain will look good on her resume. “I learned how to program,” says Haywood. “I learned about different parts. And I learned how to build a robot.”<\/p>\n

Green says she plans to study mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering in the future. But Haywood says studying engineering will have to come second to physical therapy.<\/p>\n

Each FIRST Robotics team is required to compete in at least two district competitions. First up is Cass Tech (March 12-13), followed by Troy Athens (March 26-27). The Rollin Stones hope to make it all the way to the state competition at Eastern Michigan University (April 1-3) and possibly the finals in Atlanta (April 15-17).<\/p>\n

If you would like to keep up with the team, you can follow them at: www.rollinstones3069.com.<\/p>\n


\n <\/em>Denby High School students, along with <\/em>Wayne State volunteer, <\/em>Levasseur (center), build a robot for FIRST Robotics at the University of Michigan Detroit Center.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denby High School’s FIRST Robotics team is led by Captain Breana Haywood (student, left) and Lead Mentor Murleen Coakley (teacher, right). The FIRST Robotics District Competition at Wayne State University takes place at Matthaei Athletic Complex Friday and Saturday, March 19 and 20. This story follows one of the teams competing in the Michigan districts, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}