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Rockford Robotics team members (from left in back) shooter and safety captain Shawn Lesko and gunner Joe Vander Heyden load up their robot, The Incredible Hulk, before a match at the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March.

Rockford Robotics' robot, The Incredible Hulk (center), dumps balls into an opposing robot during a match at the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March. The goal of the match is to get balls into opposing robots' trailers, while keeping them out of your own.

Rockford Robotics mentors Gabriel Kotto (back left) and Will Webber and team members safety captain Shawn Lesko (front left) and Joe Vander Heyden work on their robot, The Incredible Hulk, at the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March.

The winning robotics alliance at the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March: Winnebago High School's Winnovation team (from left), Rockford Robotics and Fondy Fire from Fond du Lac, Wis.

The Rockford Robotics floor team lead mentor Adam Czerwonka (from left), driver and team captain Jamie Webber, shooter and safety captain Shawn Lesko, and gunner Joe Vander Heyden with their robot, The Incredible Hulk, at the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March. During a match, the driver controls the robot, the gunner controls the ball-dumping mechanism and the shooter tosses balls at other robots from outside the field.

The "pits" area where robots are prepared for their matches at the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March.

Rockford Robotics team members Caroline Johnson (from left) and treasurer Joanna Webber and mentors Craig Legros and Bud Champlin work on their robot, The Incredible Hulk, at the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March.

Rockford Robotics celebrates after winning the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March.

Rockford Robotics team members Sam Smith and spirit captain Melody Scrivano cheer on the team during the FIRST Wisconsin Regional Competition at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee in March. They took turns wearing an Incredible Hulk costume in honor of their robot, The Incredible Hulk.

Robotics team finds fun and a future at FIRST

By Thomas V. Bona

BusinessRockford.com

Apr 11, 2009 @ 04:36 PM

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Don’t get Rockford Robotics’ robot angry. You wouldn’t like it when it’s angry.

What you need to know

The Foundation for the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology was founded by inventor Dean Kamen. The robotics competition gets teams of high schoolers around the world to design and build robots to compete in a sportslike setting. The world championships are in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, home to Super Bowls and NCAA basketball championships.

Teams win awards by scoring the most points, for helping other teams, doing community service and for having “gracious professionalism.”

“They’re having an amazing time and yet they have this expression here — it’s the hardest fun you’ll ever have,” FIRST spokeswoman Maureen Collins says.

Better luck next time

Freeport High School’s MetalHeads lost in the quarterfinals of the FIRST Robotics Midwest Regional Competition in Chicago.

Oregon High School’s RoboHawks lost in the qualifying round of the FIRST Robotics Midwest Regional Competition in Chicago.

Get involved

For information on joining Rockford Robotics as a team member or adult mentor, or to learn how to sponsor the team, contact Adam Czerwonka, 414-236-9509 or adam.czerwonka@
woodward.com.

The green machine, aptly named The Incredible Hulk, has smashed its way into the world championships for the FIRST Robotics Competition this week.

Not bad for a third-year team of high schoolers that’s just over half the size of an average team.

“It’s great that you get to see the product of your efforts actually at work,” said team captain Jamie Webber, a junior home-schooler from Rockford. “I’m just glad we can be there. I’m definitely confident that we’re going to fight hard and have a lot of fun.”

The Rockford team was started by Woodward Governor engineer Adam Czerwonka. When he was in high school in Wisconsin, he competed in FIRST and credits it with setting his career in motion.

“Prior to that, if you had asked me what an engineer does, I would have said ‘drive a train,’” he said. “My goals, if you asked me before, were ‘I play a guitar in a rock band.’”

With advice from Winnebago High School’s Winnovation team, Czerwonka gathered high school students and adult mentors from the Rockford region. This year, the team has 14 students from Winnebago and Boone counties and 12 mentors.

The students are home-schooled or from area schools. The mentors are from Woodward Governor, Hamilton Sundstrand, GE Aviation and other technological firms that also sponsor the team.

“For the kids, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime to see just how hard work can pay off,” said mentor Ken Lesko, who works on electric systems at Sundstrand. “The world seems to be totally focused on sports, and everyone is trying to get scholarships for basketball and football. This is how you get kids interested in science and technology in a competitive-type atmosphere that results in scholarships.”

This year’s competition theme is “Lunacy,” inspired by the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Teams of robots try to shoot, dump or otherwise get “orbit balls” into opposing robots’ trailers. But this year, they’re playing on a superslick surface with special wheels to mimic the low-gravity, low-traction environment of the moon.

The Incredible Hulk was designed to shoot balls with a turret, but it kept jamming; the team replaced it with a conveyor belt that rolls the balls out. The change helped score a second-place finish in the Midwest regional in Chicago in February and win, along with Winnovation, the Wisconsin regional in Milwaukee in March.

“Everybody jumped up and yelled, they were so excited. Everybody was hugging ... it was almost exactly like” a sports event, said team member and spirit captain Melody Scrivano, a junior at Harlem High School. “You get an opportunity to be thanked for what you do for academics. That’s really cool.”

The goal is to start formal relationships with Rockford-area schools, eventually starting individual teams for each school. Rockford Robotics members hope their success will inspire others to join. It’s already helped them think about careers. Scrivano, for example, wants to go into architectural engineering; Webber wants to be an Air Force pilot or go into computer science.

“For students that age and even me, now, today, it really sparks a love of engineering and science that I know is not going away,” Czerwonka said.

Contact staff writer Thomas V. Bona at 815-987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.

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Robotics team finds fun and a future at FIRST

By Thomas V. Bona

BusinessRockford.com