Rob: All this month we are going to be introducing you to those who often
take the road less traveled.
They are the innovators, those who turn their back on convention to try
something new.
We begin today with forty teams of high school students, teachers, and
mentors spending long hours designing a robot to compete in this year's
regional robotics competition.
It's all designed to attract young people to careers in math, science,
and in engineering.
Our Jessica Betts has been following Oklahoma's first robotics teams for the
past three years, and she picks up our story.
Jessica: Right now, people from all over the world are busy building
remote-controlled robots that will carry, and possibly lift, forty-inch
diameter balls around a track, as fast as possible for points in the first
competition, and teams only have little more
than a week left to finish them.
Oklahoma first robotics rookie teams got a pretty good head-start on
building their robots, at the kick-off in Stillwater earlier this year.
And that's where the brain work begins.
Jessica: More than 800 people crammed in the
Wes Watkins Center in Stillwater.
Rookies.
And veterans.
Competitor: It's going to take longer to get it back under control.
Jessica: Preparing to compete in Oklahoma's first ever, regional
robotics competition.
And that way we can fit it into the field space that we've got.
Eli Cobb: It seems pretty complex so far.
I think we're going to have a lot of fun.
Jessica: But this year, Oklahoma rookie teams got a little more than a kit
of parts and game rules.
Harold Holley: Using the material provided by First Robotics, build a robot
that will move forwards and backwards, left and right, in a half-a-day.
Jessica: A challenge Oklahoma regional director, Harold Holley,
says gives these first timers, the support they need to begin a tedious,
six-week journey.
Holley: Thirty-three teams all at once building 33 robots.
We've got them divided up into electronics teams, metal frame teams, and
transmission teams.

One of the most important things these students will take with them today is
how to work in a chaotic environment with someone that they haven't worked
with before, possibly one of their classmates, possibly a teacher, or in
particular, there are some engineering mentors here
that have come with their school.
And those engineering mentors are working
side-by-side with these students.
And they're going to walk away from this discovering that there are some
careers out there that maybe they haven't thought of.
Jessica: A four-hour challenge that equals a lesson in problem solving,
for these new robot inventors.
Bryan Maxwell: Building a robot, and working with more than just 3 or 4
people on a project, takes time.
Because our group, we only have 5 people that are able to stay after school.
The rest of us are in physics.
So the physics class will be doing all the math and all the other work on it,
and they will have to actually be able to tell the build team what to do.
Andy Blackford: We've done some things with smaller robots, but we've never
done anything with this size, and this much power, and all the right parts.
So, it's pretty exciting.
Susan Adair: We're trying to get our kids here at Sequoah high school to be
interested in the science, technology and engineering fields, and we thought
this would be a good way to get them introduced on a hands-on level.
Jessica: No matter the size of the team, or gender.
Competitor: We've got to show them what females can do.
Jessica: Oklahoma First Robotics teams are hammering and assembling
these robots, into shape.
And right at the four-hour mark; the Bixby robotics team finished, first.
Alex Whiteway: From what I've heard, it usually takes 2 to 3 weeks,
sometimes, for teams to get their robot moving and stuff.
So just getting it moving on the kick-off day is just an amazing experience
for all of us, and I think that's really going to
help in our success this year.
Jessica: You can see the hard work of the forty teams during the
Oklahoma City contest on March 21st and 22nd at
the Cox Convention Center from 9 am to 5 pm.
The competition is open to the public and free of charge.