Small robot bears hopes of six students

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Six Columbia youngsters will represent Missouri this spring at an international robotics competition in Atlanta.

In December, the Columbia Robotics Team, CRT 2398, snagged the Champion's Award at the FIRST LEGO League's Nano Quest Challenge at St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley.

The competition challenged students ages 9 to 14 to build and program a robot that could complete various tasks on an obstacle course.

The robot accomplished three of the 10 tasks in the 21/2-minute time frame, said 14-year-old Michael Bush, a team member.

Had the regional competition not been held in a gymnasium, the robot might have performed better, Marc Micatka, 13, said. "The fluorescent lights threw off the light sensors and made our robot spin in circles."

Since September, the team has been meeting after school a couple of hours a week to tweak and program the robot.

Team members are now taking the robot apart to create an identical robot in hopes of designing a more efficient way to complete the tasks for the international FIRST LEGO League competition April 4.

"It was easy to figure out what we need to do but difficult to get the robot in the right position," said John Taylor Hosmer-Quint, 14. "It takes a lot of know-how to build a robot, but then you need a different kind of know-how to get it to work."

Marc's not sure how well the team will compete in the international contest. "Not to be a pessimist, but there are home-school teams that spend like 20 hours a week doing this," he said. "It's insane. I mean, I'm trying to be optimistic, but I'm not holding my breath."

Other teams have adult coaches who help program the robot, Marc noted. He stopped short of accusing those teams of cheating but was quick to point out that Columbia students do all the building and programming themselves.

"That's the exciting thing," said Julie Chatman, mother of team member Clayton Chatman, 11. "All we've done is make the cookies. They've done this all on their own."

The team is also gearing up to solicit donations to help pay for their trip to Atlanta in April. They need to raise $5,000 for entry fees and travel expenses.

"It would be nice to have the community's backing, since they are going to represent Columbia and Mid-Missouri in the international competition," Julie Chatman said.

Building the robot has honed the children's' math, computer and science skills, but the boys admit participating in the robotics competition isn't all work.

"You wouldn't be here if you didn't want to do it," said Matthew Bush, 11. "Programming and building is hard. You want it to be fun, too, or else you wouldn't be doing it."