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| Patrick Benassi and Carrington Hong and the robot controls. |
Winnovation Team 1625 was founded in the fall of 2004 with 17 students; our first competition season was in 2005. A $10,000 grant from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL helped greatly in getting the team started. Under the mentorship of Team 933, from Christian Life High School, Winnovation earned four awards at the St. Louis Regional. Two of these awards qualified our team to compete at the World Championships in Atlanta. Our NASA representative, upon learning of our awards, wondered if we had understood “that our rookie year was to be our learning year!”
Winnovation challenges students across multiple dimensions, encouraging them to become their best intellectually, creatively, academically, and socially. In theory, the goal may be to design a robot to play a game, but in reality the program provides hands-on opportunity for students to apply theoretical concepts learned in school (math, science, industrial education all have direct impact) while:
- Analyzing a complex problem
- Building consensus around the solution
- Designing a 120-pound robot to solve the problem
- Building the robot from scratch including designing and machining the parts
- Programming the robot using advanced computer and electrical methods
- Evaluating and implementing incremental improvements to the original design and construction
- Developing and managing a budget for time and materials
- Working in sub teams with specific and real responsibilities that directly impact the success of the entire team and the robot.
- Meeting with and presenting to corporations and organizations who provide funding and in-kind support
Since our rookie year, Winnovation has continued to be very successful at competition, qualifying for World Championships six of the past seven years with a win-loss-tie record of 167-65-8. Click here, for highlights of the 2011 competition season.
While we are proud of our achievements, the robot’s win-loss record is not the most satisfying accomplishment. We celebrate the impact that Winnovation Robotics has had on the 86 students who have been a part of the program over the past six years. Our team members have:
- Led science workshops for elementary students at the Science Involved with Technology Conference
- Hosted three summer robotics workshop for teams in the Midwest and an annual mini-bot competition
- Mentored a number of local teams during their rookie seasons
- Raked leaves for senior citizens in Winnebago
- Built a ball-thrower so a handicapped student could play fetch with his dog
- Hosted recreational activities for elementary students
- Presented to chamber of council, manufacturing councils, corporate sponsors, along with Sensor Expo, FabTech, and INCOSE (international organization of system engineers)
- Developed relationships with students and mentors from around the world, including Hong Kong, Israel, Canada
- Met with Dr. Voorha, Northern Illinois University’s Dean of Engineering, and presented our robotics program to his staff. (Dr. Voorha and his wife also attended the Midwest Regional in 2010 and were two of our most vocal cheerleaders!)
It’s an added bonus that we get to have a lot of fun while we’re at it. Yes, at the end of the day, what gets most kids hooked is the competition. As former President George H. W. Bush said during his keynote at the Robotics World Championships in 2008, “It’s like WWF, but for smart people.” And he’s right. Hanging out with 3,000 (at a regional) to 30,000 (at the championships) other high schoolers who have worked for six weeks to transform sheet metal, wiring, motors and a bunch of other parts into a functioning robot that can kick a ball into a goal or hang from a structure is an awesome experience . . .
. . . but knowing that you helped another team fix their robot so it could actually move a few feet across the field is equally important to our kids.
