GHS robotics team competing in national event
April 4, 2001     Greenville Herald Banner

By Milton Babb

Herald Banner Staff

The Greenville High School robotics team leaves today for Orlando to participate in national finals for the "FIRST co-opetition."

FIRST is an acronym, "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."  The work "co-opetition" is used in place of competition because teams work together to guarantee success more than they compete against one another.

FIRST is a national engineering contest where high school students team up with engineers from businesses and universities to get a hands-on experience in engineering.

In the span of six weeks, they design, construct and test their robots in preparation for a no-holds-barred tournament complete with referees, cheerleaders and time clocks.

The Greenville FIRST robotics team is sponsored by Raytheon with another grand this year coming from Computer Associates.

The Greenville/Raytheon team competed in the Lone Star regionals in Houston March 16 and 17 along with 39 other teams, and walked away with the first place trophy.  The members were also presented the Innovative Control Award.

The Greenville students are among 340 such teams from all over the United States who will converge on Orlando this week.  Other teams are sponsored by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Daimler-Chrysler, as well as college-sponsored teams.

Disney has built a 14,000 seat stadium to stage the event and has invested over $2 million in the program.  The Discovery Channel will broadcast part of the meet.  It will also be featured in a webcast on NASA's internet site.

The FIRST program was started 10 years ago by inventor Dean Kamen to foster advances in technology.  Kamen is known as the inventor of the robotic wheelchair and of a home dialysis machine.  He was recently featured on an edition of "60 Minutes."

GHS Physics teacher Van LeJeune said Greenville's robot for the "coopetition" weighs in at 129.5 pounds and stands an even 5 feet tall.

"Four robots will make up each team.  These are four robots who have never 'played together' before," LeJeune explained.  "The students have two minutes before the coopetition begins to compare notes on the different capabilities of their respective robots and outline a strategy for success."

The robots manuever over an obstacle course and place game balls in a net.  The machines must also navigate a "teeter-totter."  The game is time sensitive with bonus points awarded depending on time expended.  Teams have a maximum of two minutes as many balls as possibly in the prescribed area.

James Collier with Raytheon is the lead engineer helping the Greenville students with their machine.  The robot is designed with a two-speed pneumatic gear box that will pull a 300-pound load.

The Orlando event will conclude on Saturday and students will have Sunday as a day to relax and enjoy Disney World.

Participants from GHS include Ben Brown, David Chesney, Mary Cloutier, Casey Collier, Darby Collier, Larame Cummings, Joshua Ebrahim, Justin Gabitzsch, Mellissa Gannaway, Graham Hall, Megan Hunter, Ryan Marcum, Andy McClellen, Andrew Penland, Joel Powell, Ryan Salizar, Stephanie Sherman, Matthew Sikes, Joshua Thatcher, Brandon Torrance, and Sarah Withycombe.

Coaches are Van Lejeune and Teresa Galloway.

Raytheon team members include Hector Arce, Tom Cloutier, James Collier, Bill Gannaway, Randy Hall, John Hodapp, Steve Lindo, Steve Maxwell, Will Reese, Casey Welch, Monty Wineinger, and Frankie Yau.