News

"What was hard was getting it to do just the right series of movements -- it took a lot of programming," said Fregoso, 16, a Fox Chapel Area High School junior and a member of the school's Technology Student Association.

Fregoso is one of a growing number of students who participates in high school robotics. A generation ago, robots were mostly confined to science fiction movies. Now students such as Fregoso, who wants to be a mechanical engineer, see almost limitless possibilities for them.

"I can see robots used in all kinds of ways," Fregoso said. "They are already being used to perform surgery because they have steady hands and don't get tired."

The availability of a robotics curriculum at Fox Chapel is no accident. Nor is it unusual, either in the Pittsburgh area or across the country.

"There is a big push to grow the number of technologically literate kids," said Robin Schoop, director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and a technology education teacher at Schenley High School in Squirrel Hill.

In the past five years, Schoop has helped about 50 Western Pennsylvania school districts develop a robotics program. The CMU curriculum that he helped develop is used in about 3,000 schools nationwide.

Also joining the nationwide robotics push is a Manchester, N.H., nonprofit group called For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or First. The group runs a nationwide robotics competition. A McKeesport High School team finished 24th among 85 teams in the event at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta after winning a regional competition.

"We were quite satisfied," McKeesport technology teacher Michael Dischner said. "We have talented kids in our program and will be back in the competition again this year."

Robotics isn't just for high schoolers anymore.

At Hampton, for example, high school students run a robotics camp for about 15 middle school students. Senior Steve Ung, 17 co-president of Hampton High School Technology Club, will help run the camp.

"When you work in a group, which you always do when you're building a robot, you learn to manage people and get along with them," Ung said.

Robotics is also incorporated into the middle school technology curriculum in the North Hills School District.

"Kids love it, no matter how old they are," said Reuben Clark, a technology education teacher at North Hills Junior High School. "With kids, there is a real fascination with getting something to move and do things on its own, without a remote control."

Parents are sometimes skeptical, Clark said.

"Lots of parents think that we should be building birdhouses, the way you did in shop class," he said. "But when they come in here for open house night, they see that we are pushing into new areas."

If some adults are skeptical about the value of robots, educators are not.

"It's the wave of the future," Hampton High School technology teacher Vince Kuzniewski said. "And the kids who are interested in this are usually very gifted students."

Robotics requires use of innovation and intuition more than most other high school science classes.

"It's a backwards way of learning math and science program -- students learn math and science, not to mention computer and design skills by figuring out what they need to do to build a working robot," said David Richardson, the planning committee chairman for First's regional competition, to be held in February.

At least 10 Allegheny County districts will participate in the event at the University of Pittsburgh's Petersen Event Center in Oakland.

Robots from competing teams try to best one another in an event such as a race or tic-tac-toe.

McKeesport's team entered last year at the last minute and beat 30 other teams. McKeesport assembled its robot "Charles" in two weeks, about a third of the time that many other teams had.

First wants to make math, science and engineering "as cool for kids as sports," which is why the group runs so many competitions.

When First began holding competitions in 1992, 28 teams nationwide and two from Pennsylvania competed. By 2000, the numbers had jumped to 69 nationwide and 27 from Pennsylvania. Last year, 904 teams nationwide and 42 from Pennsylvania competed.

The group is concerned about the decline in science and engineering students in the United States. Together, China and India are graduating eight times the number of engineers the United States does each year.

"Our kids are not as prepared for the future as they should be," said First research director Cindy Randall. "This is what is going to make us competitive in the future."

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News