Robotics gets boost at Liberty
BY GREGG L. PARKER
Robotics study at Liberty Middle School recently received a boost.
The Pathfinder Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) awarded a $1,500 grant to the Liberty robotics team.
AUVSI is a 501(c)3 charitable organization that attracts students to careers in the robotics industry. Their work spans grades K-12 to spark students’ imagination and learning (auvsi.org/foundation).
“We will use the grant to purchase supplies for Liberty’s BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Team and kits for Liberty’s Sea Perch Underwater Robotics team,” team founder and sponsor Nathan Pahman said.
“The goal of Liberty Robotics Teams is to engage students in STEM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math),” Pahman said. “Hopefully, we’ll inspire students to become engineers, scientists and mathematicians.”
The Liberty students recently competed at the 2011 BEST robotics competition at Calhoun Community College.
Tucker Pearson served as team captain. Team members were Meg Besaw and Hanna Hammons, engineering notebook; Chandler DeSantis, CAD drawings; Austin Benish, Jack Cook and Cade Walsh, design and build; Nick Lott, programming; Anirudh Gupta, Madhuri Molleti, Isha Chaudhary and Tahseen Robbani, booth; Caleb Clark, marketing; Joey Li and Aaron Wetmore, Web page design; and Bhavana Bathina, grant and fundraising.
Pahman attributes the popularity of robotics with students’ love of building and playing with robots. Teachers like the integration of math, science and computer science into the classroom.
“The most important thing they learn is to cooperate and work with others to reach a common goal when they’re under pressure to meet a deadline,” Pahman said. “I believe this will really help them no matter what career they choose.”
For the 2011-2012 school year, the Liberty program expanded to include Sea Perch underwater robotics, sponsored by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy.
“It’s new for North Alabama. The robots must be driven through an underwater obstacle course and complete a specific task, like stopping a simulated oil spill,” Pahman said.
Sea Perch competition is held at Mississippi State University.
