Inside an upstairs lab room, there was a space labeled “Play Pen” where the Griffith High School robotics team continued to tinker with the machine they had been building for months.
Since September — after gathering a variety of materials that included a basic robotics kit, fishing line, and metal drawer slides — they found their biggest challenge was not preparing for an upcoming competition where it needed to shoot balls into a low hanging basket.
Rather, the real accomplishment would be how to make all the parts fit into the required starting dimension — roughly the same as an 18-inch box — before it could expand and launch, said co-captain and senior Luke Reid, 17.
Interested in robotics since the eighth grade, part of the appeal was its potential for real-world applications, such as using a remotely programmed forklift to rescue stranded people or firefighters on a multi-story building.
There’s “just a lot of potential in any field,” Reid said. After high school, he plans to study mechanical engineering with a minor in robotics and hopes to one day obtain a master’s degree in robotics engineering.
His team will face off Sunday against nearly 30 others at the FIRST Tech Challenge qualifying robotics tournament at Griffith High School. The competition is open to the public and scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m.
Teams from East Chicago Central, 21st Century Charter School in Gary, Merrillville High School, and Hobart are also scheduled to compete.
“They tend to be a little nerdy, a little introverted,” said FIRST Senior Mentor Keith Hall, who helps provide advice on how to overcome glitches in construction. “We teach them how to cooperate. We have high expectations for their behavior.”
At least six teams will advance to the tournament’s state championship — held on Feb. 20 at Purdue University in West Lafayette.
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“Our team, all of our students are self taught. They do all of their own programming,” said Gracia Dudlicek, the Griffith Robotics club’s volunteer coach. “There’s no way I am going to learn Java at my age.”
A civil engineer by training, she helped start the Griffith High School team two years ago when her son Gabe – the team’s other co-captain — became a student there. He had been on robotics teams since elementary school, she said.
The Griffith High School club currently has nine members, up from seven last year.
“It’s not like anybody goes on YouTube and tells you how to build a forklift arm. You have to do that on your own,” she said. “They are just a group of kids that are not afraid to tackle things and figure it out.”
Twitter: @meredithcolias