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Updated: April 3, 2022 @ 10:55 am
Meadville, PA
The distinctive clang of metal striking metal will be heard today inside Meadville Area Senior High School as RoboBOTS returns, featuring 25 teams from 12 schools in northwestern Pennsylvania competing in the 15th edition of the robot battles.
RoboBOTS has high school and middle school students design and build 15-pound robots that do battle against one another. Hundreds of students across the region have been in RoboBOTS since the tournament began more than a decade ago.
“As many years as the program has had success, there’s a new audience of students and a new audience of parents each year,” Tami Adams said of its success.
Adams is the executive director of the northwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA), the trade organization that sponsors the tournament.
“Building, designing and machining the parts to make a robot, they really get a well-rounded glimpse of manufacturing careers,” she said.
RoboBOTS was started in the 2006-07 school year by the local NTMA chapter and area tooling and machining firms as a way to get students interested in pursuing technical careers.
Crawford County has a heavier reliance on manufacturing than other parts of Pennsylvania and the country.
About 24 percent of all jobs based in the county are related to manufacturing. The number compares to about 9.3 percent of all jobs in Pennsylvania being related to manufacturing and about 8.5 percent nationally.
With many of the county’s tooling and machining shops being suppliers of tools, equipment and parts to major manufacturers, RoboBOTS has been a key factor trying to build interest in manufacturing-related careers.
The local tooling and machining industry helps RoboBOTS through sponsoring teams and having employees serve as mentors — which adds to the excitement and anticipation among the students.
“It’s exciting for the older kids that have been in it for a few years while the younger ones look forward to getting into the program,” Adams said. “Whether it’s an in-school program or an after-school program, it’s been a success.”
While the program is fun for the students, they’re also learning, according to Nate Bahurinsky, the volunteer coordinator of the competition.
RoboBOTS reinforces math and science as the kids see and use practical applications of those disciplines. But there’s also the intangible side, he noted.
“There’s a lot of planning (to build a robot),” Bahurinsky said. “They have to follow the rules of the tournament. They have to submit a binder (of documentation) to us. They get to learn different weights of metals to use. They have to learn time management.
“Win, lose or draw it’s a great experience for them,” he said.
Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.
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