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By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings January 09. 2015 3:29PM Ashland robotics team aims to build a winner Last year's robot rests on the floor while Eryl Kenner, 15, and Joseph Clough, 17, work on a prototype board for this year's robot during a Robotics Club session at Ashland High School on Wednesday. Daily Tidings / Jamie Lusch Eryl Kenner has command functions on the brain, but at the moment he can’t do much to satisfy that urge, which only makes his job as Ashland High School robotics team head programmer more stressful. But that’s OK because, having been through this once before last year, he knows what to expect. This is normal. There will be problems to solve, obstacles to overcome, troubleshooting, sparks flying, wire-cutting, metal-bending and “advice.” Lots of “advice.” And that advice will come from teammates who will be trying to help Kenner navigate My Favorite Team’s robot. Not that Kenner will be the only team member who will get a crack at the team’s Logitech controller. This year, My Favorite Team will probably be adopting a "share the wealth" approach at the first of two district competitions, Feb. 26-28 at the Clackamas Academy of Industrial Sciences in Oregon City. And even though he remembers the anxiety of quarterbacking last year’s robot for AHS, Kenner is hoping he’ll get another chance this year. “Oh, it was stressful,” he said Wednesday during a short break in Ashland High's metal shop. “I was the driver every single competition. So every time, it wasn’t like, ‘Oh no, are we going to do well?’ It was, ‘Oh no, am I going to screw up?’ A few times people got mad, but they weren’t driving, so they didn’t have the same amount of stress.” So why would he want to go through that again? “It’s just fun,” Kenner said. “It’s like a video game, except in real life. And way cooler.” Kenner and the rest of My Favorite Team, or Team 3024, are in the early stages of preparing for district competition after learning the details of this year’s FIRST Robotics challenge last Saturday. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) released a game animation which explained this year’s competition, named “Recycle Rush.” Now, My Favorite Team — the name is 3024’s clever way of forcing announcers to call Ashland their favorite team before each performance — has about six weeks to build a robot that can stack plastic containers, navigate through confined spaces and stuff foam noodles into the tiny hole on the top of recycle bins. On Wednesday, My Favorite Team was hard at work in the metal shop, in the early stages of developing a robot that some 25 team members and mentors hope will place well enough at districts to earn a trip to regionals in Cheney, Wash., and later the world championships in St. Louis, Mo. Everybody on the team has an area of expertise. Kenner and Blair Wilson are programmers. Wenjun Luo is developing an application that will allow My Favorite Team to track scores. Gabe Dreyer is a mechanic. Henry Cook is the team’s safety inspector (don’t forget those goggles). My Favorite Team is coached by local filmmaker Paul Moen. On Wednesday, team members were operating in different clusters throughout the shop, which is loaded with metal fabrication equipment and, currently, electronics that will soon be used to construct a sort of robotic forklift (at least that’s what one of the robots on the Recycle Rush video vaguely resembled). As Luo pecked away on a laptop, learning code, Dreyer used a vise to bend metal into a claw which fit perfectly into a recycle bin’s handle. In a room next to Dreyer’s vise, Kenner was fiddling with electrical components and crimping wires. And in another room off to the side, past work benches and more metal fabrication tools, three more team members, including Wilson, had used duct tape to map out the Recycle Rush field of play and were considering strategies that Kenner and Wilson could then, at least in part, program into the controllers. “It’s going pretty well; it’s a lot to consider right now,” Wilson said. “We haven’t been doing much programming as of now, but more strategic thinking, thinking about what we’ll have to program. And so I’m guessing after about maybe this week we’ll really hit the programming and start that — once we get some electrical stuff done and actually have a chassis that we can drive around.” Building the robot is only part of the challenge facing My Favorite Team, which must also raise funds to cover equipment and travel costs. So far, it has raised $14,000 toward its $25,000 goal. Sharon Eve, Ph.D., one of the team’s nine mentors, believes anyone who donates to the cause is investing in the country’s future. The semi-retired psychotherapist echoes the words of FIRST founder Dean Kamen. “(Kamen) realized that if you asked any kid today, ‘Can you name a living sports figure?’ they can name a million of them,” Eve said. “But if you ask them to come up with one living scientist, they couldn’t. Not even one. Some said Einstein, but he’s dead.” So Eve helps out whenever she can. She also provides a unique perspective: her daughter, who has since graduated from high school, once competed for a robotics team that advanced all the way to the world championships. That was in 2009, when Eve and her family lived in Southern California. Eve says she sees the same kind of potential here and she’s excited about helping the team realize it. “The mentors, we just want to be here all the time,” she said. “We’re crazy about the kids. And they can’t wait to learn.” And build. But first, they have some decision to make, and some coding to figure out. Luo, a foreign exchange student from China, will use Street Samurai Studios to develop the app he’s in charge of. There’s only one problem. He’s never used it before. So on Wednesday, Luo and Paul Mace, a team mentor who’s written a book about data recovery, were sitting at one of the tables in front of a laptop, troubleshooting. “It’s pretty much pressure because even though I used to program with other language,” Luo said, “this is the first time I’m developing for a mobile device. It’s pretty hard.” When asked how he thought the team would perform, Luo hesitated before saying, “I don’t know yet.” Mace leaned over and suggested another answer: “We’re going to the world championships.” “Yeah,” Luo said. “Sure.” Then he and Mace got back to work. To donate to My Favorite Team, visit team3024.com . Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20150109/NEWS/150109849 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->