DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Twenty-four student teams battled it out at the Hawaii Convention Center yesterday in the Hawaii Regional Botball Tournament sponsored by the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium. Students from Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School on Kauai gathered around their robot to test it. The robot starts when it is exposed to light.
Students' creations fight it out
in an event designed to get them
interested in science
Two months ago, sixth grader Mano DeLude gave up basketball in favor of a time-intensive project that required complex engineering and advanced computer programming.
Meetings often lasted into the night and, as for homework, "I just did it in the car on the way home," he said.
By the time DeLude and his fellow middle school teammates were finished, they had crafted a robot capable of movement and sensing different colors.
Their creation battled 23 others yesterday at the Hawaii Regional Botball Tournament.
And though DeLude's team didn't win the competition -- the title went to McKinley High School -- its members say the experience was well worth the hours of learning and labor.
"It taught me a lot about computers," said Noel Soma, an eighth grader at Our Redeemer Lutheran School. "I had a lot of fun at this."
Botball, a complex game in which robots face off in 90-second point battles, has taken off across the country as a way to get young people interested in science.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Robots navigated a table covered with yellow and blue cups.
The robots aren't remote-controlled, but programmed to respond to certain colors and shapes differently.
The game is played on a table covered with yellow and blue cups, some of which are topped with foam balls. The robot is tasked with carrying the correct-colored cups to its side of the court, and is also programmed to put foam balls into large holes at the table's corners.
This is the first time the tournament is being held in the islands, and the program's local coordinator hopes to make the event an annual one.
"Sports events are very popular," said Arthur Kimura of the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, which sponsored the tournament. "This is an academic event, but it has that same (sports) flare to it."
The first botball competition was held seven years ago in Florida as part of an outreach program by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, a Oklahoma-based nonprofit.
This year, there are 13 tournaments held across the United States.
At the Hawaii Convention Center yesterday, contestants were in the "pit area," in which adults are not allowed, working on their robots and making last-minute changes.
Parents, meanwhile, crowded the tournament tables with camcorders in hand.
"If we had many events like this, maybe quicker learning would happen," said DeLude's dad, Clarence. "It was exhausting -- after a long day of school and then going into this realm. ... It's not limited to just one (school) period."
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Fifteen-year-old Jonathan Kobayashi, left, and Ike Nagamine, 16, representing McKinley High School, were all smiles yesterday after beating Hualalai Academy from the Big Island to win the Hawaii Regional Botball Tournament.
Ninth-grader Jennifer Ishimoto, a member of the McKinley High School team, said creating and programming a robot turned out to be more difficult than she originally suspected.
"Our own enemies can be ourselves," she said, adding that human error is almost always present. "One semicolon can throw the whole program off."
Teammate Hae Young Park, also a ninth grader, said she got involved in the project in hopes of getting a taste for robotic engineering -- something she hopes to turn into a career.
"The future is technology and robots," she said. "I learned different things, how ideas can help and not help."
Erik Luchsinger, a seventh grader at the Big Island's Hualalei Academy, said the tournament is also about getting along with others under stressful conditions. Luchsinger's team took second place in the games, while Waiakea Intermediate School came in third.
"You need a lot of teamwork," Luchsinger said. "Don't do it if you don't have determination."
