LSSU hosts students from across the state for robotics competition

Brendan Wiesner, Sault Ste. Marie News
·2 min read
Teams work on last minute changes to their robots during the FIRST Robotics competition hosted by LSSU on March 14, 2024.
Teams work on last minute changes to their robots during the FIRST Robotics competition hosted by LSSU on March 14, 2024.

SAULT STE. MARIE — Lake Superior State University recently hosted hundreds of high school students for its annual FIRST Robotics competition.

The competition drew in teams from 40 different high schools, mostly from Michigan but also from Minnesota and other states. The competition, which started on Thursday, March 14, sees students spend months building and rebuilding machines to compete in a variety of planned tasks.

FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Math, is a robotics organization that holds competitions and other events around the world to encourage students to enter the field of robotics and engineering.

The Superior Roboworks team from Houghton and their robot Francois the 24th pose for a photo during the first day of the FIRST Robotics competition at LSSU on March 14, 2024.
The Superior Roboworks team from Houghton and their robot Francois the 24th pose for a photo during the first day of the FIRST Robotics competition at LSSU on March 14, 2024.

Students who are part of their local robotics teams at their high schools have the chance to join this program. They spend about two months developing and adding to their robots before the competition. Robots are usually passed down from one team to another as students graduate, and each team adds to the machine for the specific tasks of that year.

This is the sixth year LSSU has hosted regional matches for FIRST. Students in this part of the competition have already been competing with their robots for several weeks. After winning in this competition, students can go on to compete at the state and national levels.

More: LSSU to host FIRST Robotics contest March 14-16

Robotics teams from various high schools prepare their machines to use in the competition area before matches begin for the FIRST Robotics competition at LSSU on March 14, 2024.
Robotics teams from various high schools prepare their machines to use in the competition area before matches begin for the FIRST Robotics competition at LSSU on March 14, 2024.

The competition asks students to complete a variety of tasks that change every year but usually resemble the same issues that real world engineers have to face. Students must be skilled with teamwork, problem solving and making changes to programming on the fly.

"Our robot is building on some ideas we had in previous years. It's interesting to see how people came up with ideas to solve the problem," said Rachel Bertram of the Superior Robotics team from Houghton.

Robotics teams from various high schools prepare their machines to use in the competition area before matches begin during the FIRST Robotics competition at LSSU on March 14, 2024.
Robotics teams from various high schools prepare their machines to use in the competition area before matches begin during the FIRST Robotics competition at LSSU on March 14, 2024.

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The kinds of challenges that students are asked to face sometimes change based on the theme of the year. In previous years, LSSU had themes like video game power ups.

Machines must be able to perform specific tasks like launching disks, being operated remotely and being able to drive themselves without a controller. Despite being given the same set of tasks, robots tend to look very different from team to team.

"I think the beauty of the competition is that they give us the same task but, everybody has their own spin on it, that's why they all look so different," said Bela Soderquist of the Great Lakers team from Mackinac Island.

The Great Lakers team from Mackinac Island use a small practice field for last minute adjustments on their robot before the FIRST Robotics competition begins at LSSU on March 14, 2024.
The Great Lakers team from Mackinac Island use a small practice field for last minute adjustments on their robot before the FIRST Robotics competition begins at LSSU on March 14, 2024.

Before they reach this point of the competition, students are also expected to develop real world skills that don't directly relate to the science, such as marketing to raise funds for the robot and team travel expenses.

The competition started March 14 and lasts through March 16 at the Norris Center at LSSU.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: LSSU hosts students from across the state for robotics competition