By Jan Perala
Amid flying sparks and metal crunching clashes, a radio controlled robobot, custom designed by A-Tech’s Robotics squad battled its way to a regional first place finish at the Alliance for Working Together Foundation’s Robobot Competition last year and the current A-Tech team, The Machinists, is looking to repeat the win in April with a new, innovatively designed machine.
A-Tech’s 2016 team dispatched two time defending champions Madison High School in the final round of the competition last spring as 31 teams from public, private and career technical school from across Northeastern Ohio competed at the event. The A-Tech team went on to claim a 9th place finish among 65 competitors at Nationals.
Not content to rest on their school’s laurels, the A-Tech Machinists are preparing to enter the fray at the Alliance for Working Together Foundation’s seventh annual Robobot Competition held at Lakeland Community College on Saturday, April 29th. The event is open to the public. Admission is free.
Team members Ayden Arendas, Curtis Beukeman, Justin Osborne and Damian Schoville, seniors in A-Tech’s Precision Machining Program, explained that months of brainstorming sessions, testing and troubleshooting design concepts and meticulous assembly of the robot’s components, trimming it to a regulation 15lb. fighting weight, have created a formidable design for their bot.
“We’ve been working on this since September. We machined 100% of the components of our bot, Arditi, in our lab and now we’re close to getting the machine down to fighting weight,” Arendas said. “It’s been a great experience and we’re looking forward to competing at regionals and defending our title.”
The flying sparks and intensity of the gladiator style fray at the AWT Robotics Competition will be the culmination of a complex inquiry based project that immerses robotics team members in a comprehensive design and manufacturing process. The project has required the team members to utilize STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) applications, and creative problem solving skills to build the robobot. Studies focusing on future trends in education and employment recommend an intensified emphasis on the development of technical skills which translate directly into career opportunities and have also identified so-called soft skills such as critical thinking, adaptive thinking, creative problem solving, teamwork and effective communication as tools essential for success in 21st century careers.
Mutually advantageous partnerships between industry and education are an emerging trend now embraced by employers and schools, but at A-Tech that trend is a long established tradition that gives students the competitive edge as they seek employment or move on to advanced training. The A-Tech curriculum equips students with 21st century skills by tapping into the knowledge of local industry experts who serve as on-campus instructors, as mentors and host students on early placement in their places of business.
The A-Tech Machinists are under the guidance of Technical Advisor Scott Ray of Short Run Machine Products and Wecall, Inc. engineer Ben Chaffee who owns a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Akron and a Master’s of Science in Robotics Systems and Development from Carnegie Mellon University and A-Tech Precision Machining instructor Ron Maurer, whose resume includes in depth experience in industry.
Local industry sponsors for the A-Tech Robotics Project include Fargo Machine, Short Run Machine Products, Reese Machine, Wecall, Inc., Penco Tool, The Spring Team, Austinburg Machine, Hemly Tool Supply, Fenton Manufacturing and Delta Railroad Construction.
The Alliance for Working Together is a nonprofit group comprised more than eighty members from area business and industry dedicated to promoting careers in manufacturing through partnerships with education.