[Tom Schindler]

Here is my essay that got me into WPI last year.... (thanks to Lora Knepper for helping me with parts of it)

===================================


It seemed to move with a grace surpassed only by that of nature. Its long, gleaming aluminum arm seemed to flow like nothing I had ever seen before. There I stood, in utter amazement at how a bunch of high school students, a few engineers and a single teacher could build such a contraption. A few scraps of metal, some wire, a few motors, pneumatics and an idea seemed to bind together to create a machine with its own mind I soon forgot that there were drivers controlling this masterpiece by remote control, as it moved in such a way that made it take on a life of its own. It was that day I stepped from 8th grade into high school through FIRST robotics.

I had no idea what I was in for. FIRST is an acronym that stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” It is a international robotics competition that pairs high schools, some middle schools and corporate America as teams in an action packed, “sport of minds” founded in 1992 by former WPI student Dean Kamen. At this time, I did not know that each team puts in well over 2000 man-hours into their robot, spends long nights and weekends at their school or work area building the robot, or that you basically give up your life from January until April and devote it entirely to this program. My knowledge of that would come later.

The first meeting of this FIRST Robotics team was in January. We spent six sleepless, tiring yet exhilarating weeks designing and building our robot. Each year in Florida there is a national competition, which all of the teams across the nation are invited to attend. After those long weeks of work and fun, I didn’t expect much, I mean, it was only a robotics competition, right? Wrong. It was while I was walking across the expanse of fake green grass covering Epcot Center's parking lot to see a grandstand comparable to a football stadium that I realized just how wrong I was. Fourteen thousand people I was told, fourteen thousand people were coming to watch and cheer on their wondrous hunks of metal competing.

During the design process that year, we realized that we would need fairly complex software to allow the robot to climb an eight-inch step. I slaved furiously at a laptop. Some of the other students called me, “that kid that sits at the computer” since they didn’t know my name. When I emerged from my corner, the robot was complete. I loaded the software into it, and ran it. The robot sprang to life, and to both my amazement and everyone else’s, it worked. The team leader, Mr. Mothersele – though known to all of us simply as “Mr. Mo” could only say that the robot running on my software was, “poetry in motion.” This was the first time in my life that I had ever accomplished something that seemed to be worthwhile. A feeling of excitement shot through me. I had helped the team.

I am now heading forward into my fifth year of the FIRST program. I have gone from being, “that kid in the corner” to team captain. In these past years, I have watched myself and the team grow. The knowledge I have gained far surpasses the four medals I have hanging on my walls. Students have graduated, and others have filled in their places. Now it is my turn to graduate. I have the task of passing on what I have learned so the team can continue to function seamlessly. Who knew that a robotics club would take me this far way back when I hopped on board in 8th grade?