At CHS, robots take over

There’s a new competition coming to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley: the Snake River Rumble.

Taking over the Clarkston High School gym Friday were teams that used their engineering skills to build robots for the first-ever VEX robotics competition in Clarkston. There were 10 teams total, including three from Clarkston and three from Asotin, and some came from as far as Seattle, Bellingham and Sandy, Ore.

Kelli Williams teaches robotics at Clarkston High School and is the adviser for the Technology Student Association and coach for the Clarkston robotics team. Williams has 14 students in the robotics competition who practice twice a week.

There are competitions nearly every weekend in western Washington, but it was getting expensive to take teams from Clarkston and Asotin there every week. The event at Clarkston was five years in the making. Williams is hoping to have more competitions in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley to encourage team participation locally, and have two tournaments a year.

“We would love if Lewiston got involved, the more the merrier,” she said. “Trying to make it more accessible to students is the goal.”

Erin Eslinger, of Sandy, Ore., traveled as a coach with her team to Clarkston. She knows Williams and Tim Weber, Asotin’s robotics coach, from other events and said it was her turn to travel to a competition. This is her 11th season of robotics competition.

In that time, she’s seen the growth of robotics competitions. For example, when she started there were 30 teams in the entire state of Oregon, now there are 160. She predicts it will only grow in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley as well with the help of Williams and Weber.

“I see — in five years — 40 teams in this gym,” Eslinger said. “You guys have a great community behind you, too.”

It’s also an opportunity for students to learn and put their classroom skills to the test.

Three of those students were CHS seniors Alison Wojtylko and Joshua Schafman, and junior Gavin Downs. This is Downs’ second year being a part of the robotics competitions, but its the first year for Schafman and Wojtylko. Although they have attended other events this season, they enjoyed being able to compete on their home turf.

“It’s a really big step for Clarkston and other STEM programs, which aren’t always emphasized,” Wojtylko said. “It’s a good opportunity for kids interested in engineering.”

Downs and Schafman had taken classes from Williams at the high school. Schafman said that Williams encouraged him to join the robotics team.

“Three months later, here I am,” he said.

Wojtylko said that Williams has been a good motivator for her students and inspiring as a woman in a STEM field, which stands for science, technology, engineering and math. Wojtylko, Downs and Schafman all are interested in the engineering field.

Wojtylko said the competition helps with logical thinking and builds hands-on skills. She also likes that it involves interacting with other students and working in a group. That includes other teams who offer suggestions and help each other find parts and troubleshoot issues with their robots.

Eslinger said that cooperation between the teams is encouraged by VEX, but students don’t need that as a motivator for assisting their opponents.

“It’s no fun to play against a robot that doesn’t work,” she said.

The Clarkston team has already learned from previous competitions. Downs said that the first robot they built was more simple and the team focused on moving the rollers for points, but they then added wheels so they can get more points in other areas. Downs also said they changed the design to prevent the discs from getting stuck inside the robot.

Part of the learning curve is also becoming experts on the rules. Coaches aren’t allowed to argue over rules with the referees — that’s the students job. If a student thinks a rule has been violated, the student shows the rule to the ref and explains how they interpret that rule.

“Kids are the expert when it comes to the rules,” Eslinger said.

The VEX rules have parameters that the kids operate within those restrictions in whatever creative way they see fit. Eslinger said that means that the VEX rulebook is constantly changing to close loopholes so that the competition doesn’t get too easy.

The first competition includes a skills challenge and the 2 vs. 2 challenge, where teams work together to score points. There are many ways for teams to score points, such as 10 points for changing a roller on the side of the arena to the team’s color, 5 points for throwing a disc into the highest goal, 1 point for a lower goal and 3 points for having the robot rest on certain tiles.

At the beginning of the two-minute competition, there is 15 seconds of autonomous driving. That’s when the robot moves based on a code programmed by the team. For the other 1 minute and 45 seconds of competition, the robot is controlled by a driver.

The competition is set up in a standard bracket elimination format. Teams are also given awards for excellence, design and a judges award, which is determined by the judges based on interviews, the team’s engineering notebook and sportsman-like conduct.

Some of those judges are Williams’ former students, who are studying at colleges and universities nearby and returned to help with the competition. Another judge was Glen Riley, an engineering manager at Schweitzer Engineering Labs. He was excited to see the competition and the opportunity students had to face off against teams from across the region.

Clarkston High School principal Doug LaMunyan said the competition is a way for students to showcase their robotics skills and be excited about doing something “unbelievably smart.”

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.