Gwen and I have taken on another exciting project. Last summer, I was flying one of our drones at Harmon Field, just practicing my skills. Then, I met Ms. Sonya Twitty, who runs Higher Academia here in Columbus. Higher Academia is a non-profit organization that helps students and families through education, tutoring, and mentoring. You can learn more about them at www.higheracademia.org.
Sonya asked me if I’d ever taught drone classes. I hadn’t, so I was a bit unsure about what she wanted. But then, she told me about their new Robotics program for students. She wondered if I’d be interested in mentoring them. I thought, ‘That sounds amazing!’ We chatted for a bit, and I talked to Gwen. We met with Sonya at the center in Columbus, and we decided to get involved.
We thought we could bring something special to the table due to our work with drones. Technology has always been a big part of my life, and with the advancement of drone technology, especially autonomous drone technology, we thought there might be some connections with robotic technology.
Our robotics program is part of a global group and community called First, www.firstinspires.org. First was started over 30 years ago by Dean Kamen, who’s an incredible inventor. Dean had a vision to create a program to help prepare our young people for the future through science and technology. And boy, did he deliver! Since the programs started, over 3.2 million students in over 110 countries have participated. Last year alone, there were over 4500 events held worldwide. That’s incredible and amazing!
Our rookie team has been working hard to build our first robot. It’s just practice for now, as we gear up for the next season this Fall, which could be our first! We’re slowly coming together as a team, learning from each other and learning about engineering, technology, and teamwork.
We recently got to go to our first competition, just as spectators and observers. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I can tell you, we had a blast! And you could see the students from all the different teams having so much fun. It was just a practice competition, but it was super competitive and exciting. Oh, and the robots were incredible! There were probably 26 teams that competed over several rounds. We even got to meet with one of the teams, Syntax Terror, and chat about all things robotic. Syntax Terror didn’t win the competition, but they did win the 1st place Innovate Award, which was really cool.
We’re excited to see what happens as we move through these early phases of our development together. There are a lot of things the students will be doing aside from building the robot. Community outreach and involvement is a big part of the team’s development. We’ll be speaking with local businesses about sponsorship opportunities, doing local events to show off the program, and giving back to help inspire the next generation.
Stay tuned for more stories from the “Pit” (the area for teams to work on their robots during and between competition rounds) as our team evolves (BTW, our name is the Honey Badgers!).
Peace, love, and safe flying!
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