Buena High School Robotic Club strives to compete
in a national robotic competition

The recently formed 25-member Buena High School robotics club intends to build a robot and to win a national competition.  The Nifty Engineering Robotics Design Squad, or NERDS for short, has taken on a mission to promote science and engineering to high school students through robotics.  In addition, their goal is to win the FIRST Robotics Competition in 2006.

This goal is not an easy one.  The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of young people, along with their mentors, to build a robot to solve a problem.  The robot must be built within a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules.  The NERDS will face experienced teams in this regional event to be held in Phoenix.  If the NERDS are successful, they will have the opportunity to compete in The Championship to be held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, where more than 8,500 high school students will participate.

To sharpen their competitive edge, the NERDS have recently formed two teams (Red and Blue) to compete in a challenge set forth by their coach and Buena chemistry teacher, Mr. Thomas Heller.  The goal of the competition was for each team to create a robot that would navigate a defined course, pick up wiffle balls, and deposit the balls in a basket for points.  Each team successfully built a robot within the six-week timeframe set by Mr. Heller.  The mini-competition was held at Buena on 18 November.  The robotics team members learned a lot from their robot design preparations and the competition.  The basic engineering, problem solving, and teamwork techniques learned before and during the competition will help the team members be successful in their upcoming FIRST competition.

The NERDS have the support of professionals from Fort Huachuca, who serve as experts and role models, to expose them to real-world problem solvers.  Engineers from the Intelligence Electronic Warfare Test Directorate (IEWTD) attend each team’s meetings and actively participate in the team’s goals.  Colonel Michael Boardman, Director IEWTD, was instrumental in getting the robotics club started at Buena.  Boardman met with Mr. Tad Bloss, Buena Principal, to explain FIRST robotics and to offer whatever assistance IEWTD could provide.  Several IEWTD engineers are now actively involved in the robotics club in an unofficial capacity and in a spirit of community service.  IEWTD has recently coordinated for three surplus laptops to be provided to the NERDS.  IEWTD’s contractor, WESTECH International, Inc., also donated $1000 to the robotics club.

 NERDS robot prepares to grasp a wiffle ball.