Purdue students help out area high school robotics
Publication Date: 03/05/2009
I would like to thank the Purdue students who mentor the robotics teams for Harrison, Lafayette Jefferson and West Lafayette high schools. These Purdue students (members of Purdue FIRST Programs) took off Thursday and Friday to travel with the teams they mentor to Cleveland, Ohio, for a regional meet. Against 52 teams from seven states, the three local teams did well, each winning significant awards for their efforts in many aspects of a competition that pits robots, designed and built by high school teams, in a simulated low-gravity environment which tests the robots (and their student drivers’) ability to function in group tasks. In fact, my son’s team from Harrison was in the group that won the exciting championship match; but far more meaningful to me was the way that the 50 or 60 high school students from three different schools in Tippecanoe County formed a block that cheered all three of “our” entries as they worked through the two days of competition. By the time the championship match came up, all the students from Jeff, Westside and Harrison were massed together chanting “Boiler Up!” and cheering for the Harrison robot. That show of unanimous support speaks volumes about the quality of the leadership of the three teams and the students on each of them.
I attribute this to the attitude that the FIRST Robotics League fosters, of “Gracious Professionalism” and to the Purdue mentoring group’s ability to implement that professionalism. Thanks to you for such a contribution to our high schools.
Larry Theller
Staff