“You?ve cost the team … $260,” teacher Joshua Gabrielse tells programming captain Jasmin Johnson after school.
An industrial pedestal fan circulates room air on the third floor of Dunbar High School, where Jasmine?s robot is blind. She can?t get a signal from the camera “eye” and thinks the control board might be cooked.
Seven weeks ago, she helped lead the Lab Rats ? Dunbar and Patterson high schools? team ? to second place in the state finals of the US FIRST Robotics Competition. She programmed their robot, named Cheese, to reach it?s goal on the field and deploy two plexiglass ramps.
“During the competition we had a little bit of a weight problem, because we had to be 120 pounds or less and we were 121,” Jasmin said. “We just took off some parts and got down to 119.9.”
That kind of innovation and redesign is at the heart of the robotics program.
The seed of the program came with Gabrielse three years ago from Southwestern High School. He and Sharon Ball, also from Southwestern, brought this club to two state championships. Last year they came in 23rd.
Gabrielse gave his student team members all the credit for climbing from 23rd to second place.
“Mentors and teachers don?t touch the tools,” he said. “Mentors don?t design robots.
“On some teams, professional engineers build their robots for them, and I guess they get inspired. On our team the kids build the robot,” said Gabrielse.
Students from Dunbar and Patterson high schools in Baltimore City demonstrate their robot, Cheese, which took second place at the US First Robotics competition in Annapolis earlier this year.
They can turn to some big guns to answer questions and seek guidance. Electrical engineers Jared Ellis, Leroy Daley and Luther Williams from Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, and Leonard Huskey from the Army Research Laboratory.
But the main goal of the program is to get students prepared for college. Borderline students can get in, Gabrielse said, but can?t stay unless they keep up their grades.
“Robotics will give you something real to be frustrated about,” he said.
The students get the message.
Last year Karlyssa Childers, now 15, didn?t think she?d stay a second year. Then the championship got in her blood.
“The competition is the fun part,” she said, working on a robotic arm with pinchers. “The build season is stressful. There?s a lot of hours that you put in and a lot of work.”
By late Thursday, Jasmin recoveres the sight of her robot, Scoop.
“Mr. Gabrielse, the camera works!” she calls across the room.
He nods in her direction, his pride obvious.
