Monroe High School (1556?) in the Glendale News Press

[sanddrag]

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/edu...7p-56453c.html

A couple corrections:
Clark Magnet is going to Phoenix and Los Angeles, not Las Vegas
The "submissions" are not from the college. They are from the individual high schools with the college as a sponsor.
Clark Magnet does not have a "team of college professors"

Now that the corrections are noted, feel free to read it.

Published February 15, 2006
Students raging to build the machine
Competition aims to raise interest in electronics and mechanics programs at local schools.
By Eric Horwitz, Special to the News-Press and Leader


Cynthia Perry / News-Press

Students raging to build the machine

GLENDALE -- Electricity was in the air Monday night at Glendale Community College.

Glendale Community College professors and James Monroe High School students from Los Angeles excitedly worked on their Nerf-ball-shooting robot for a competition.

The robot is one of two submissions from Glendale Community College in this year's For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition.

The other entry comes from a team of college professors and Clark Magnet High School students.

Clark and Monroe students will head to Las Vegas for the regional competition March 30 and April 1 to see if the robots they've labored on since Jan. 1 can win a game akin to basketball.

On a 26-foot-by-54-foot playing field, 40 to 50 teams will randomly divide their robots into two teams of three that try to score points by shooting Nerf balls through the opponent's hoop in two minutes.

The top three overall scoring robots after 10 to 15 rounds will compete on an international level in Atlanta for a trophy and scholarships.

Regardless of the outcome, teachers and students enjoy the entire building process.

"It's been fun." said electronics and robotics professor Jennifer Hughes. "Each time they come here, each week has been a huge change in the robot."

Hughes is one of four college professors who is helping the two high schools in order to inspire these students to pursue a career in engineering.

Waning interest in electronic departments at colleges compelled Hughes to involve high school students in the competition. Ideally, students who would otherwise flip burgers after they graduate from high school will become interested in robotics and will take classes at the college.

After two years, they can leave with an Electronics Technician Certificate that can lead to jobs in such places as Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Clark Magnet has worked with the college for four years. This year is Monroe's first experience.

"If there's one thing I hope the kids get out of this is teamwork," said Monroe robotics teacher Lewis Chappelear.

Each school's robot is made by four teams, each of which has a student captain, that separately create the base of the robot, an arm that shoots the balls, electronics inside, and a camera that helps aims into the hoop. A fifth team from the school's film department shoots a documentary that records the entire process.

"It's been a crazy ride that you wish wouldn't stop," said Dimitrius Mikhail, a Monroe student captain of the arm group. "But it's not coming to an end in the future. This changed me from fixing cars to build[ing] a car, but it's called a robot."