Feb 25 2011
Students of Hardin Valley Academy robotics team are working on developing their robot to compete in the FIRST regional contest, which will be held in Knoxville between April 1 and 2, 2011.
The robot has to be programmed to carry out the desired tasks on a playing field. They are developing a small pole-climbing robot. The students are guided by experts from the Oak Ridge National Lab for developing robots and contend for college grants.
Philip Keller of the team has mentioned that a lecture given by Lonnie Love, researcher at ORNL, inspired him to develop an interest in the robotics field. Keller managed to get Lonnie Love and other similar laboratory experts as mentors for the team.
Mary Lin, Computer Teacher at the Hardin Valley Academy, also showed her involvement in helping the robotics team. However they had just two weeks to form a team as well as to arrange for sponsorship to participate in the contest. She mentioned that they managed to raise money from ORNL and a couple of other firms.
Another group of team members are developing a website about their team. They also need to compose an essay on their robot developing experience.
The winning teams of the contest will be qualified for the FIRST national contest, which will be held in St. Louis.