You’ve seen it on students walking the halls of UA, and even
on a bear or two. But the latest fashion
plate to model the Ursuline green plaid is none other than a robot.
Ursuline’s Robotics Club, nicknamed the Robots in Plaid, is
working to incorporate some of that well-loved green plaid into the design of
their robot.
“We designed and built the robot from scratch,” said Haley,
a sophomore and one of the founding members of the club. “Then we program software so the robot can
complete tasks, like knocking crates over or tossing balls, for our
competitions.”
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| The girls work on their robot at the Round 1 Qualifier on Jan. 14. |
The UA Robotics Club competes against teams from area
schools as part of the FIRST Tech Challenge.
Their Round 1 Regional Qualifier took place on January 14 and the Robots
in Plaid finished in a seven-way tie for 5th place out of the 20
teams competing.
Their achievement is all the more impressive because the
club is only in its second year. They
started small last year but have grown to an enthusiastic 18-member group. The girls are preparing for the Round 2
Regional Qualifier on February 4, with their eyes on a spot in the State
Tournament.
By then they hope to have their robot proudly sporting the
UA green plaid, said Alex, a sophomore and another founding member of the
group. She enjoys how robotics gives her
practical experience for the future.
“This is what I want to do in college, and as a profession,”
she said. “And nothing gives you
experience like robotics does.”
“I hope that by being in Robotics Club the girls can find
applied uses for the concepts they are learning in school,” said Dr. Michael
Ricard P ’15, one of the moderators of the club and an engineer at Draper Lab
in Cambridge.
Two of Dr. Ricard’s colleagues at Draper Lab, Eric Nelson
and Emily Vincent, also assist with UA robotics. The girls in the club attribute much of this
year’s growth and success to the influence of these three Draper volunteers.
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| Preparing the robot for competition! |
“We were very excited that we got to work with the Draper
team,” said Catherine ’12, another founding member. “Our robot is much more sophisticated this
year, and I attribute that to the Draper team’s help in taking our concepts and
making them happen by guiding us with the right questions.”
And while the Ursuline girls are very grateful for their new
mentors, Dr. Ricard sees benefits for both groups.
“Eric and Emily provide a different type of role model to
the girls than a parent, and I also think it’s important for them to have
female engineers like Emily as role models,” he said. “And I can’t tell you how many times Eric and
Emily have told me, ‘Thank you for getting me involved in this!’”
And whether the Robots in Plaid make the state tournament or
not, it will still have been a great season.
“As a senior, I’m really proud of what robotics has done,”
Catherine ’12 said. “We were just a
fledgling team last year and we’ve grown and improved so much this year.”
