“It’s great to get some good press,” said Julie Loeb, retired special education teacher and advisor to East Technical High School’s Robotic School, while beaming with pride as she escorted us to the room where the team meets.

By RHONDA CROWDER

Staff Reporter

“It’s great to get some good press,” said Julie Loeb, retired special education teacher and advisor to East Technical High School’s Robotic School, while beaming with pride as she escorted us to the room where the team meets.

In the midst of sharing the group’s successes, while walking through the noisy hallway, she suddenly remembered that she forgot to show us the robotic team’s award case, built by NASA and located in the front of the school, despite patiently awaiting our arrival at the front door.

See, East Tech’s Robotics Team epitomizes excellence in education and proves how it can be achieved through corporate sponsorships.

The robotics team at East Tech formed in 1994. At first, they were a consortium team, but in 1995 they branched off to do their own thing. At that point, they became Team 120 then eventually nicknamed themselves the Scarabian Knights since they’ve often times incorporated an Egyptian theme into their projects.

Loeb, who has advised the students for 8 years, said being Team 120 speaks to the longevity of the team as some Robotics teams are numbered in the 3000’s.

Currently, Team 120 is made up of about 19 students. But, the Call and Post were only introduced to four of them last Friday immediately following school – when they generally meet.

After being seated at a table in the shop-like area filled with materials they’ve gathered and used over the years, East Tech senior Daniel Sexton and juniors Nathaniel Johnson, Travonna Brown, and Christian West explained why they joined the team.

Participation is voluntary, just as with other extracurricular activities.

For Sexton, it was the love of science and technology in addition to gaining hands-on experience. Brown likes the idea of working with real engineers. Johnson thought meeting new people and traveling (they just returned from St. Louis) seemed exciting, and West wants to be a civil engineer. He felt like being on the team would put him a step ahead in the game.

Sexton, Johnson, Brown, and West all believe being on the robotics team helps brighten their future. They like being different from the typical public school student.

“It makes us unique,” said west. “Everyone can have a football or basketball team. Not everyone has a robotics team.”

“I like that. Can I quote you?” Sexton, who joined in the 10th grade, responded.

The others started in the 9th grade.

Each one wants to pursue engineering of some sort and believe participation gives them an edge. “It opens up many opportunities for us,” said Johnson.

“It’s a great opportunity to be able to express yourself and discovering things you would’ve never thought of,” said Brown.

As a result of being on the team, the students learn time management and priority setting since they must keep up with homework and grades. Earlier in the year, they engage in team building activities until it’s time to start building the robot.

They have six weeks to build a robot and all the materials are sent to them in a package. The package also includes the game or tasks the robot should be able to perform. The students must build a website as well.

This year, in St. Louis at the international finals, they ranked somewhere in the middle.

There, they compete against teams form countries such as China, Australia, Japan, and Israel. Loeb thinks opportunities like this are invaluable.

“Where are they going to have an experience like that?” she said.

In St Louis, their biggest accomplishment was the ability to do defense as they successfully built a working arm. According to Brown, one of robot’s drivers, the arm “worked perfectly.”

On the team, everyone has a job and they develop trust that everyone will complete their assignment. Participation has even lead to them functioning like a family, doing everything together including hanging out and eating lunch.

Although there are no prerequisite courses to be taken to join the team, the students explained that you must know math, how to measure and calculate, because the smallest miscalculation can throw off the entire project. They do receive some lessons on wiring, configuration, and programming from the volunteer engineers.

They have three engineers who voluntarily work with them and one intern. Former team members come back to support current team as well.

Loeb said a lot of the teams they compete against have paid engineers assisting them. “We don’t get anything,” she added. So, she is grateful for those who continue to volunteer their time and talents to help these students succeed.

With no budget, everything extra that they have or need, such as plaques to award other teams, they make.

The students agreed that they have great sponsors as well, but get little support from the school and local community. Two sponsors they mentioned in particular are Rockwell and GrafTech. Both give the students the opportunity to see the world of work.

Founded here in Ohio 125 years ago, GrafTech is a global company with manufacturing facilities all over the world including South Africa. Ironically, their very first facility was located on E. 55th, not too far from East Tech.

Currently, all of the company’s corporate activity along with research and development is conducted at their Parma location.

According to Lionel Batty, vice president of research and development, they chose to sponsor East Tech’s Robotics Team because it’s simply the good corporate thing to do and they want a mixed generation of technical people to become future employees.

“Students are genuinely going on into future careers,” said Batty.

GrafTech pays the $5,000 entry fee for the materials package.

They also provided one intern.

Batty said sponsoring the team also helps the moral of current staffers.

“It’s a benefit to our employees. It gets them out of the office. It’s a change of pace. It’s fun and provides a different perspective.”

GrafTech has sponsored Team 120 for about six years now. Batty explained that the CEO picked East Tech after judging a competition and becoming enthused over the young people involved. He believed it was a fit for what the company wanted to do in terms of community service, so much so, that he returned and told the staff “that’s our team.”

GrafTech even hold two internships a years for East Tech students, asking the school to nominate them.

“We give them a different view on what they can achieve,” said Batty.

Being a past judge in robotics competitions, himself, Batty also explained that the teams are judged on how well they do in the game.

“Each year, a different game is presented so they have to build a different robot.”

They are also judged on things such as imagery or theme, quality, safety, and website design. Roughly there are about 23 different awards to be presented, while not all awards enable teams to move on to the finals.

Only three teams go on.

This year, East Tech was the oldest running team in the competition, so they’ve won the Chairman’s Award, whereas they receive a pass for life to the national finals.

Only 19 other teams hold this prestigious honor.  

Initially, GrafTech helped with designing the robots in addition to providing lead tools and equipment. As time passed, they got more involved by allowing students to use their facility. One of the Sexton’s most memorable moments is when he saw how special effects for movies are made at GrafTech.

GrafTech even sends what they consider used laptops, just a couple of years old.

“If we could help just a few,” said Batty. “Imagine what they could achieve with a little opportunity.”

At the same time, more than a few students sign up for the Robotics team at East Tech.

Cathy Shimko, an instructor at East Tech and team mentor, said now they put a call out for students and host try-outs. In earlier years, they held a summer camp in attempt to recruit incoming freshman.

This year, they ended up with about 19 students as not all make the cut.

Students must have a minimum G.P.A. of 2.27 to participate and the rules are strict.

But, Loeb said the Robotics team students are rarely disobedient.

Just to note, the graduation rate of robotics teams is 100 percent.

In addition to building robots, Team 120 performs community service. This past year, they held a fundraiser enabling them to distribute food to 56 families for a week.

“We got the entire school to participate,” said Johnson, with glee.

“They are role models for the school,” Loeb continued. “We’ve gotten a really nice group of kids over the years.”