Schools

Panther Robotics Ready to Slam Dunk at FIRST Robotics State Championship

Bonney Lake High School's FIRST Robotics Team is ready to rumble at today's regional competition at CenturyLink Field.

The third time’s a charm for Bonney Lake Robotics.

It’s the third year the team has developed a robot to battle in the Seattle Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, with a final showing today at CenturyLink Field. If BLHS places in this week’s regional match, they will be moving on to state competition.

“I think we’ve got an excellent shot this year,” said Jason Vander Hoek, head coach for the Bonney Lake Robotics Team.

Find out what's happening in Bonney Lake-Sumnerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Each year, FIRST Robotics teams across the country are given a mystery box full of parts and a special task – build a robot with a specific skill. Then, regional teams compete against each other in arena matches modeled after popular games and winning teams advance to state, then national championship. Last year’s competition pitted soccer-playing robots against each other.

This year’s mission? Build a robot that can shoot a basketball into a hoop.

Find out what's happening in Bonney Lake-Sumnerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“It’s like going to a rock concert, there’s such a high energy there,” said Vander Hoek. “It’s competitive, but in a fun way. All the teams are really competing against themselves.”

Students in the robotics program work hands on with all the materials – instructors are almost exclusively hands off when it comes to building the robot for competition.

“All we do, as mentors, is expose the kids to it. We let them make the decisions on how to build the robot,” said Vander Hoek. “They make mistakes, and they learn. It’s totally addicting, from a teaching standpoint.”

The team robot stands about four feet tall and weighs 120 pounds. It’s designed to shoot a foam basketball into a 9-foot hoop. Bonney Lake’s robot is competing against 21 other regional team schools. Robot teammates are chosen at random and a bracket-style competition whittles down the competition to the top performers. Vander Hoek said that the fun part about the game is, teams have to work together until they eventually stand alone, so the schools root each other on from the sidelines.

“The teams are three-on-three, and in each round you don’t know who your partners are,” said Vander Hoek. “You’re looking to help out your competitors because you don’t know who will be your future teammate.”

The robotics contest kicked off in January and the team had 6 weeks to design and build their basketball star. They were given a box of parts and a rulebook, but the design was up to them. Students took on different roles in the project – some mapped out the angles and trajectories, others worked to weld and construct the robot. There is technological work to be done, as students learn how their robot will move by building and animating it in a computer program.

The BLHS team has met six days a week every day since January and the students have worked long hours to finish their bot in time. When they finally finished its construction, the robot was 8 pounds overweight, so the students had to come up with creative solutions and put the bot on a screw and light metal diet, a last minute fix that took some creative thinking.

Panther Robotics, which has 30 registered students, began three years ago, and this year will see it’s first wave of graduating seniors. Students in the club are interested in web programming, mathematics and physics. Many go on to study the science field when they graduate.

“It’s a very positive program,” said Colin Kulsa, BLHS senior and Robotics team captain. Kulsa is preparing to study engineering on a full ride scholarship to WSU in the fall. “It’s hands-on and something real to do.”

BLHS junior Jessica Bahr owes her childhood fascination with LEGOS to her passion for building things today. She was in charge of the robot’s camera, which takes a picture of the hoop and uses the dimensions of the backboard and distance to determine the shot.

“It’s easy,” she said. “I definitely want to be an engineer of some sort.”

While many students in the robotics program are interested in engineering careers, web programming and animation are key components of the program, too.

BLHS senior Nathan Finley helped kick off the robotics team three years ago and is interested in studying biology in college.

“I was not the greatest student before [joining the robotics team],” said Finley. “But here I’ve been teaching myself computer programming. It’s given me a greater drive to learn, and I’m just becoming a better person overall.”

If Bonney Lake places at this weekend’s competition, it will be a “scramble” to get to state, said Vander Hoek. Then, the team will need to raise at least $4,000 to attend the national competition. Boeing is a current sponsor of the Panther Robotics and footed the $5,000 entry fee and participation bill, but student fundraising is a huge component of the club.

The team sells wreaths during the holidays and throughout the year, they sell high-efficiency light bulbs in a partnership with Puget Sound Energy. You can learn more about supporting Panther Robotics by visiting the team website.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Bonney Lake-Sumner