Woodlawn High’s robotics team inspires student interest in engineering and technology - 11/27/07

The TechnoWarriors demonstrated at a Congressional Reception held in Washington, D.C. to honor the FIRST International Champions.

What do camouflage, drilling, “gracious professionalism,” sugared popcorn and hot chocolate, and late nights of “poof dodgeball” all have in common?
 
The answer to this enigma: Team 768. Woodlawn High School’s Robotics Team, the TechnoWarriors, is a multinational conglomeration of both Woodlawn students and area home schooled students. Team 768 participates in FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization founded by innovator and inventor Dean Kamen in 1992 to inspire high school students about innovation, engineering, and technology.

Each year, Kamen and a group of professional engineers from NASA and major corporations create a new, challenging strategy game involving play by both students and a robot, which the students must design and build in six weeks. The students are provided with a basic kit of parts, the game rules, and size parameters for the robot. They are challenged to think “out-of-the-box” in designing a robot to successfully play the game, and while the task seems formidable, 1,300 teams worldwide succeed annually.

Upcoming Events

December 15, 2007 A FIRST Tech Challenge scrimmage event Woodlawn High School 1801 Woodlawn Drive, in Woodlawn Free and open to the public, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. January 10, 2008 A Fundraising Outback Steakhouse dinner Dulaney High School 255 Padonia Road in Timonium Robotics classes or clubs can be found at Deep Creek Middle School (in partnership with Northrop Grumman) and at Dulaney and Woodlawn high schools.

The Woodlawn TechnoWarriors became a FIRST team in 2002.  Prior to that time, the Engineering Club participated in MESA (Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement) and designed a solar electric vehicle, which placed seventh nationally in the 2001 SolarRayce in Topeka, Kansas. The Robotics Team competed at Virginia Commonwealth University for its rookie season and has participated annually at the Chesapeake Regional in Annapolis for the past five years. 

In 2006, the team won the Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award at the Chesapeake event. During the 2007 season, the team competed in the Finger Lakes Regional in Rochester, N.Y., where it successfully reached the quarterfinals. In Annapolis, the team reached the semifinal rounds and was awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award, the second highest honor a FIRST team can win.

Team 768 placed second overall at the Ramp Riot off-season events in November 2006 and November 2007.

The TechnoWarriors competed in the International Championships in Atlanta from 2004-2007. In April 2007, Technowarriors became the first Maryland team to reach the finals rounds on a championship field (quarterfinal round). The TechnoWarriors were also privileged to accept an invitation to demonstrate their robot for congressmen, staffers, and VIPs, including Dean Kamen, at a Congressional Reception held in Washington in April 2007 to honor the FIRST International Champions at the high school and middle school levels.

The TechnoWarriors enjoy competing at off-season events, including the Duel on the Delaware in October 2007 and the Brunswick Eruption in November 2007, reaching the quarterfinals in both events. At the Ramp Riot off-season in November of 2006 and 2007, the team managed to place second overall each time. The team helped to organize and compete in the first Annual Battle o’ Baltimore off-season challenge in August 2007. 

In addition, team mentors, Fred and Robyn Needel took the robot to the Ra Cha Cha off-season event in Rochester at the end of October so that Team 73 (the Bausch and Lomb Visioneers) could participate after having its robot stolen. This is the essence of “gracious professionalism” – doing what would make a grandmother proud – and is a guiding concept of FIRST Robotics.

In April 2007, Team 768, based at Woodlawn High School, became the first Maryland team to reach a quarterfinal round at the FIRST International Championships in Atlanta.

In addition to achieving on the competition field, Team 768 strives to change the culture of their community, which is also part of FIRST's challenge to students. Woodlawn team members proudly demonstrate their accomplishments and excitement to younger students and community members, presenting the positive aspects of their school and educational opportunities. The TechnoWarriors have also started FIRST Tech Challenge teams at Woodlawn and Owings Mills high schools and FIRST Lego League teams at Southwest Academy and Woodlawn Middle School.
 
Team 768 is hosting a FIRST Tech Challenge scrimmage event at the school, 1801 Woodlawn Drive, in Woodlawn on Saturday, December 15, 2007, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The team is also selling tickets for a fundraising Outback Steakhouse dinner being held at Dulaney High School, 255 Padonia Road in Timonium, on January 10, 2008.  Woodlawn students welcome public support in their endeavors to reach the community and to raise funding for the 2008 season.
 
As one member put it, “768 is unique because we are a family. Robotics brought us together, but love and an intrinsic selfless desire to care for each other and the community keeps us together." 

To learn more about this amazing “family,” contact Roxan Steer (rsteer@bcps.org), the Needels (needel@comcast.net), or visit the team web site: http://team768.org.

Story by Kwami W., a senior at Woodlawn High School and captain of Team 768. Photos courtesy of Team 768 and Woodlawn High School.

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