Brother Rice robotics team heading under water
For the second year in a row, the Brother Rice High School Crusader robotics team dominated a regional robotics competition, and now will compete at the international level in California.
The competition, known as the Marine Advanced Technology Education Midwest Region competition, was hosted by Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium at Northeastern Illinois University. According to the MATE website, the international competition will take place June 23-27, and will require the team to use a remotely operated underwater vehicle to do a variety of tasks.
Dan Mostyn, the faculty leader of the Crusader robotics team said this is the third year for the team. He and his fellow coach, Eric Gamboa, worked with 20 students who met after school, four days a week, to design a vehicle that could identify hazardous cargo that may have fallen to the sea floor, assist with underwater construction, take samples of contaminated clam habitat and perform maintenance on a fountain.
Of course, the robot is not really doing those things in Brother Rice’s pool, but the competition mimics real-life situations that professionals run into with this type of equipment.
Mostyn said he was happy the boys won, given that they worked so hard.
“This year was uniquely special, because we took first in each individual part of the competition, and thus took first overall,” Mostyn said. “The atmosphere and mood at the competition is one of fun and learning. It’s a great feeling to have all the boys hard work come out with a firstplace win.
“The guys went through the engineering and design process — brainstorming — and then they swam around the pool testing the equipment,” Mostyn said. “Three years ago I started this program because I wanted to promote engineering, and wanted to help Brother Rice be a leader on the South Side for robotics and engineering.
We can be a center point for high school STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) on the South Side.
“It’s a lot of math, science and creativity.
I call it ‘the engineering design process.’ The process involves brainstorming, prototyping, construction and testing in the pool.”
Recently, the school purchased a 3-D printer to help the students design the materials they needed for the competition.
Mostyn said the school’s new engineering program allowed a few of the students in the robotics team to create 3-D designs and print plastic parts for the equipment they used in the competition.
“That was cool,” Mostyn said. “As for the robotics team, I didn’t think they could top last year, but they have learned so much.
Every year, we learn more and more, and they are inspired.
“Underwater robotics is unique. It is harder than land-based robotics because water is just not nice to robots. The guys have learned not to panic when things break, so when something broke a few days before the competition, they took it out of the water and fixed it. They got through it, fixed the problem and won.”
Joseph Taylor, a senior from the Mt.
Greenwood community of Chicago, is the vice president of electrical engineering for the robotics team. He wrote in an email that it was challenging to work on the equipment, but he loved the experience.
“At first it was a little challenging, but after a bit, it seems to simplify itself, and it got easier to work with as I learned,” Taylor said. “It’s honestly one of my favorite things to do.
“I’m a little nervous (about the international competition) because I want the team to be successful, and go above and beyond what is expected of us. We have to rise to the occasion because the truth is that there are a lot of good teams out there who are just amazing at what they do.
“The Brother Rice robotics club is a great place to learn a lot of new things such as mechanical or electrical engineering, but also helps build other skills, like teamwork so that you can accomplish a task at hand. I’ve learned and grown so much, and I will truly miss them when I graduate. It has been one of my best experiences in my life to work with everyone,”
Taylor said.
When the team competes at the international level, they will be competing against about 125 teams split into about 60 college and 60 high school students. Last year, Mostyn said Brother Rice finished in the middle of the international group, which he said was a good accomplishment for their first year competing at that level.
Team members include Jack Clisham, Liam Coughlin, Andrw Cwik, Peter Cwik, Tyler Davros, CJ Dvorak, Ryan Kaczynski, Sean Kenny, Jack McBrearty, Matt McCormick, Jamie McManus, Franie Mesec, Pat Nielsen, Tim Novick, Nico Perez, Ryan Rice, Joseph Taylor, Pat Walsh, and Vince Zampillo.
Patti Ahern is a freelance columnist and can be emailed at PattiRMA@aol.com.
The competition, known as the Marine Advanced Technology Education Midwest Region competition, was hosted by Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium at Northeastern Illinois University. According to the MATE website, the international competition will take place June 23-27, and will require the team to use a remotely operated underwater vehicle to do a variety of tasks.
Dan Mostyn, the faculty leader of the Crusader robotics team said this is the third year for the team. He and his fellow coach, Eric Gamboa, worked with 20 students who met after school, four days a week, to design a vehicle that could identify hazardous cargo that may have fallen to the sea floor, assist with underwater construction, take samples of contaminated clam habitat and perform maintenance on a fountain.
Of course, the robot is not really doing those things in Brother Rice’s pool, but the competition mimics real-life situations that professionals run into with this type of equipment.
Mostyn said he was happy the boys won, given that they worked so hard.
“This year was uniquely special, because we took first in each individual part of the competition, and thus took first overall,” Mostyn said. “The atmosphere and mood at the competition is one of fun and learning. It’s a great feeling to have all the boys hard work come out with a firstplace win.
“The guys went through the engineering and design process — brainstorming — and then they swam around the pool testing the equipment,” Mostyn said. “Three years ago I started this program because I wanted to promote engineering, and wanted to help Brother Rice be a leader on the South Side for robotics and engineering.
We can be a center point for high school STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) on the South Side.
“It’s a lot of math, science and creativity.
I call it ‘the engineering design process.’ The process involves brainstorming, prototyping, construction and testing in the pool.”
Recently, the school purchased a 3-D printer to help the students design the materials they needed for the competition.
Mostyn said the school’s new engineering program allowed a few of the students in the robotics team to create 3-D designs and print plastic parts for the equipment they used in the competition.
“That was cool,” Mostyn said. “As for the robotics team, I didn’t think they could top last year, but they have learned so much.
Every year, we learn more and more, and they are inspired.
“Underwater robotics is unique. It is harder than land-based robotics because water is just not nice to robots. The guys have learned not to panic when things break, so when something broke a few days before the competition, they took it out of the water and fixed it. They got through it, fixed the problem and won.”
Joseph Taylor, a senior from the Mt.
Greenwood community of Chicago, is the vice president of electrical engineering for the robotics team. He wrote in an email that it was challenging to work on the equipment, but he loved the experience.
“At first it was a little challenging, but after a bit, it seems to simplify itself, and it got easier to work with as I learned,” Taylor said. “It’s honestly one of my favorite things to do.
“I’m a little nervous (about the international competition) because I want the team to be successful, and go above and beyond what is expected of us. We have to rise to the occasion because the truth is that there are a lot of good teams out there who are just amazing at what they do.
“The Brother Rice robotics club is a great place to learn a lot of new things such as mechanical or electrical engineering, but also helps build other skills, like teamwork so that you can accomplish a task at hand. I’ve learned and grown so much, and I will truly miss them when I graduate. It has been one of my best experiences in my life to work with everyone,”
Taylor said.
When the team competes at the international level, they will be competing against about 125 teams split into about 60 college and 60 high school students. Last year, Mostyn said Brother Rice finished in the middle of the international group, which he said was a good accomplishment for their first year competing at that level.
Team members include Jack Clisham, Liam Coughlin, Andrw Cwik, Peter Cwik, Tyler Davros, CJ Dvorak, Ryan Kaczynski, Sean Kenny, Jack McBrearty, Matt McCormick, Jamie McManus, Franie Mesec, Pat Nielsen, Tim Novick, Nico Perez, Ryan Rice, Joseph Taylor, Pat Walsh, and Vince Zampillo.
Patti Ahern is a freelance columnist and can be emailed at PattiRMA@aol.com.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
