Kewl! Over the holidays I watched a PBS special about a robot competition. In this one, teams built all kind of devices to shoot a bunch of balls into a net. Some teams built really nimble shooters, others built bulky beasts. And some built good defensive systems. The show detailed how the high school teams had to learn about project management, deadlines, how to recover from problems in crisis situations, etc. and just like any exciting sporting event, the final competition was actually quite thrilling. I'd like to see the Spelman team compete...
*************************************************** http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_state_of_black_america_news/16558 Living Black History: Spelman's SpelBots Amaze Date: Monday, February 22, 2010, 6:32 am By: Patrice Gaines, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com EDITOR’S NOTE: As part of our “Living Black History” series in observance of Black History Month, this week, BlackAmericaWeb.com will celebrate blacks in education. Andrew Williams had a vision. Spelman College believed in it. And the result is a team of fierce young women who are earning an international reputation by going toe-to-toe with more experienced graduate level teams in games of high technology. They are the SpelBots, first all-female and all-African-American team to qualify for the prestigious senior league of Robocup. Not quite six years after founding the group, Williams, their founder and coach, says the SpelBots are “breaking barriers and paving the way for other black women and for Spelman to one day win the international championship.” Members of the team, mostly computer science and engineering majors, conduct research and education projects in robotics and compete internationally in robot soccer competition. The team is attracting young women to Spelman who were pleased to find that the college offers an innovative way to learn cutting edge technology. “I had been on the robotics team in high school,” said Jazmine Miller, the team’s co-captain and a junior who is a dual computer science and computer engineering major. “I was always interested in computer science and love video games. I found robotics very interesting.” Jonecia Keels, the team’s other co-captain and also a computer science and computer engineering major, said, “I saw (the SpelBots) give a presentation during freshman convocation, and I thought about how they were breaking stereotypes. By being a part of SpelBots, I thought it would show the world that minorities can bring a lot to the table in technology.” Coach Williams is the first and only African-American thus far to receive a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas. He was teaching at the University of Iowa, where he had just two black students in five years, when he read the popular best-selling Rick Warren book, "The Purpose Driven Life." The book made Williams start to ponder what he wanted to accomplish with his own life. “I realized my purpose was to help African-American students reach their potential,” he said. He had already returned to school to get his PhD. because he wanted to be a role model for students. “At the time, during the mid ‘90s, we were having the big dot-com boom, but I didn’t see many African-Americans becoming instant millionaires,” he said. So Williams and his wife and their children moved from Iowa to Atlanta so he could fulfill his purpose. First, Williams introduced students to four-legged robots that looked like cute little puppies. “I thought they could spark interest in students because they were cute,” he said. “Students could get visual and tactile feedback on programming. I was concerned that sometimes our students aren’t taught in ways that cater to their learning style.” Team members spend some 10 hours a week on projects. But when preparing for competition, that time can triple. The first year of competition, they discovered most of their opponents were graduate schools. The SpelBots qualified to participate in the international contests in Japan, but they didn’t win any matches. Last year, the team had a controversial first place tie in the RoboCup Japan 2009 Standard Platform Nao League humanoid soccer championship in Osaka, Japan. It was a well-earned honor to even be invited by the RoboCup Japan organization to participate in its first humanoid robot competition. In these contests, teams play their opponents in soccer with robots programmed with artificial intelligence and operated without the use of remote controls. The SpelBots tied five matches and were playing the championship round against Fukuoka Institute of Japan. They tied and had to ..... go into a penalty kick situation. Williams said, “If we could have done sudden death, we would have won. But they picked up our robot just as it was about to kick.” A kick would have meant a win. Williams challenged the ending. "The organizer started yelling at us,” said Williams, who insisted his team receive proof of their standing. “They gave us documentation showing we tied.” Neither the SpelBots nor the Fukuoka team was mentioned during the awards ceremony. But SpelBots co-captain Jazmine Miller went on the Japanese team’s Web site and found out they had put up information saying Fukuoka had won. The SpelBots have put the contest on YouTube for all to see, and they have their documentation to prove that the tournament at least acknowledged a tie. “While some in the international community are supportive of us, we have also learned the hard way that global racism and sexism does exist,” Williams noted. Still, the student team members say they are reaping amazing benefits from being SpelBots. “Honestly, the benefits are limitless,” said Miller. “I’ve been able to travel, learn a lot of programming applications … and be with a group of people who continue to empower and encourage me.” “We’re able to do graduate level work,” added Jonecia Keels. “How many people can say they work on a $17,000 robot? This has boosted our confidence level immensely. It has inspired us to work on our own projects. It has given us the opportunity to get internships.” Williams makes sure the students have an opportunity to also encourage other youths. “We’ve gone as far as California to speak to middle school students,” he said. “Students treat them like rock stars. We get a chance to inspire under represented students to pursue science and engineering.” Just this month, the team was honored during a Black History celebration at an Atlanta Hawks game. To hopefully encourage even more black youths, Williams wrote a book called "Out of the Box: Building Robots, Transforming Lives." “I grew up on the low-income side of Junction City, Kansas. I’m the youngest of six kids. My dad is African-American; my mother is from Korea,” said Williams. “We had a two-bedroom trailer, and I slept in a cardboard box as a baby. I try to encourage students not to let people put them in a box of low expectations and not to put themselves in a box because of fear of failure.” “I was intimidated at first because I didn’t think I was capable,” said Keels, speaking of her high school experience. “The more I learned, the easier it became. It was challenging and demanding but it wasn’t out of reach.” Both Miller and Keels intend to pursue careers as entrepreneurs. Keels has already designed an app that was offered by Apple for its iPhones. “If you have a passion for the technology field, don’t be discouraged or intimidated if you don’t see many African-American faces,” said Keels. “You are just as intelligent as anyone else. We need to step outside the box and show people we are capable.”
