“PenguinBot” -— the five-foot robot — and Dos Pueblos High School’s first robotics team are off to Atlanta next week for the National Robotics Competition.

In their first ever competition, the group won the “Rookie Inspirational” award in Arizona last month. More recently, the 28-member team (all seniors) and their robot earned the “All Star Rookie” award in Los Angeles, qualifying for the national event.

PenguinBot is a 150 pound metal creation designed to perform several challenges, including shooting a ball into a hoop eight-and-a-half feet off the ground and defending against other robots. It is programmed to operate both by remote control and on its own.

Under the banner “Celebrate Penguinocracy!” the teens and their mentors worked feverishly for six weeks to design, assemble and test a robot, able to perform specific tasks, from a standard kit of parts and set of rules common to all participants.

The effort required exceptional time commitments on the part of students and their mentors. Weekends, very late nights and even an all-nighter were all part of the effort, said student Michelle Walker. “We were even tossing parts into the box as Fed-Ex was taking it away,” she said.

The robotics team is part of Dos Pueblos’ Engineering Academy, one of the high school’s academic programs for students interested in pursuing any field of science or engineering.

“This is the first official year for the Academy, with all classes in place,” said Amir Abo-Shaeer, director and teacher. Abo-Shaeer is in familiar territory — he graduated from Dos Pueblos in 1990. After earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at UCSB, he worked in industry for several years before deciding to utilize his experience and education in the high school classroom. “I taught during grad school and enjoyed the experience,” he said. “I realized that I was much more excited about teaching and interacting with students, and made the change.”

Abo-Shaeer stressed the fact that the Academy is designed for students interested in any area of applied science, not just engineering. He also made it clear that girls are very much encouraged to apply for the program, as well as boys; 25 - 30 per cent of this year’s group is female. “We definitely are working toward enrolling an equal number of qualified girls as boys,” he said.

Walker, one of those females, had high praise for the academy.

“I’ve gained so much from the hands-on activities,” she said. “Theoretical learning has its place, of course. But I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world, even though I had so many days I was exhausted, and it was really trying when something wouldn’t work.” Walker, who is going to Harvey Mudd College in Pomona next year, ended up working on the electrical team of the group, even though she “knew absolutely nothing about the subject before this,” she said. She credited Jamie Fitzgerald, a Raytheon engineer who contributed hours and hours of his time to the team, as a tremendous help.

Sponsors of the engineering academy include Raytheon, Precision Machining and NASA.

Jory Harris is also a huge fan of the engineering academy and its robotics team.

“This program is probably the best experience a high school student thinking about any career requiring teamwork could have,” said Harris. “We worked with project management, budget, marketing design and of course all the technical aspects, to actually build a robot and make it work.

Harris, who will be attending the University of Chicago next year, called his participation on the team “an incredible experience.”

“To have six weeks where you’re working all the time on the same project was very useful in terms of all the teamwork and planning that had to go into it.

“It has also been really fun,” he said.

Matt Davis found the experience to be much more than he expected. “The competition experience is really quite amazing,” he said. “There were so many people cheering and yelling — it was like it was a hockey game. It provides excitement and engages everyone in what would normally be called a nerdy thing.”

For more information about the robotics competitions, go to usfirst.org/robotics, and for more information about the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy, go to dpengineering.org.

Photo by Cydney Miller