Robowranglers Unveil Lone Star 2005 as Competition Nears
February 27, 2005
Greenville Herald Banner

By Beth McClellen

Amid the long list of "things to do," engineering careers, family life and social responsibilities, each year a group of men put their lives on hold to mentor students from Greenville High School.

It is "Lone Star," a 120-pound robot, that brings the men and students together for six weeks of educational camaraderie.  While the robot's name never changes, it is completely built from a box of parts each y ear, taking on a new look and a new task.

As part of the FIRST robotics competition, engineers from L-3 Communications give a team of students from Greenville High School the equivalence of a college education in physics, calculus, mechanical and electrical engineering and computer programming.  Volunteering every minute of their time on this program, the engineers stay after work each evening to create the radio-controlled robot that will go to competition in April with the team.

Lone Star 2005 is a 120-pound machine, with a scissor lift arm, build on the premise of an Archimedes screw, a four-wheel drive train and the ability to travel six feet per second.  It will be driven by students, maintained by the student/engineer team and will compete with robots from across the nation at both regional and national competition.

"Three days of regional competition is equivalent to a football team going from the first day of practice to the state championship.  Although our regional is 48 teams from across the nation, half of the teams are from Texas," said GHS team coach, Vanessa Pope.  The Robowranglers, (GHS' moniker for the team), are well established in the regional arena.  We have won the gold and silver medals at that level in the machine division, we have been named the Chairman's Award winner and won numerous judges' awards for our machine's abilities.  This past year, the Robowranglers added a gold medal in a new division, Web site design.

GHS student Matthew Mahrer's design was recognized as one of only 17 in the nation to meet the gold standard.  The awards at competition are based on not only machine performance but how the machine was built and how the team works together.  In national competition, we start all over and compete with 500 teams until we are down to the final eight.  In the 2004 National FIRST competition, our team was one of only 96 teams to go into the finals.

"We celebrate Engineers Week in a very unique way," said Liz Wisdom, senior team member.  "We put our robot in a crate and ship it off to competition.  This year, I got to stay until the robot went into the crate, and I realized just how many hours the engineers give to the team.  To say they sacrifice is just not even a strong enough word.  These men worked until the wee hours of the morning to help us finish our robot."

FIRST only gives the teams six weeks to build their entry.  Historically, the robot goes into the crate as Engineers' Week begins.  The week is a national education experience developed to introduce students to the field of engineering.  This week promotes the importance of getting a technical education and celebrates the contributions of engineers in our lives each day.

Students gain hands-on experience in the program and often find their niche in the engineering world.  The robotic creation created by the team is a design formulated by students and then fine tuned by the knowledge of the engineers.  Together the two groups build the entry for FIRST competition.

"With robotics I realized that the mechanical aspect of the robot is a fun experience, but where my interest lies is in the computer science required to build that robot.  I have gained a respect for that field, and now plan to explore the computer science field when I attend college," said team senior Sarah Wright.

The team will compete in Houston at Reliant Arena March 30 - April 2 and in Atlanta, Ga., at the Georgia Dome April 21 - 23.  The team is entering its twelfth year of national competition.

L-3 Communications volunteers this year include:  Gabe Cook, Adam Davies, Chris Follett, John Hodapp, Steve Maxwell, Adam Reppond, Casey Welch, Monty Wineinger, and Brad Marcum from Sierra Nevada Corporation.

Students on the team are:  Beth McClellen, Liz Wisdom, Sarah Wright, Justin Griggs, Brian Wight, Matt Mahrer, Drew Roberts, Michael Risley, Phillip Stromberg, Kevin Morris, Jason Maxwell, Peter Chung, Megan Wineinger, Amanda Isham, Lane Gould, Nathan Follett, Justin Tharp and Logan Marcum.

The team is coached by GHS educators Vanessa Pope, Terri Galloway and Johnny Tharp.

Anyone interested in learning more about the team can log onto:  http://www.robowranglers.com.  In navigating the site, the team has its history, team members and pictures of the building season and past competition.

McClellen is vice president of GHS Robotics.