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Illinois Tech Robotics finishes year of
outreach at FIRST World Championship

Kori Bowns
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Illinois Tech Robotics (ITR)
prides itself on being not only a student
organization where members can learn
new things and build exciting projects, but
also as one where students have an oppor-
tunity to help others and make an impact
by helping inspire children to pursue an
interest in science and technology fields.
Each year, ITR offers its members a variety
of ways to get involved.

During this academic year, ITR
students hosted two youth robotics com-
petitions, volunteered at 11 youth compe-
titions, mentored a high school robotics
team, coordinated a season kickoff event
for high school robotics students, and
participated in public outreach events,
including the Museum of Science and In—
dustry’s annual Robot Block Party, where
exhibitors from around the world show off
their creations to inspire museum guests.
This academic year, ITR students donated
over 2000 hours of their time to help thou-
sands of younger students learn about fu—
tures in science and technology.

The vast majority of ITR’s out-
reach and volunteer opportunities work
closely with a youth robotics organization
known as FIRST.

For Inspiration and Recognition
of Science and Technology (FIRST) was
founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen
with the mission of showing students that
science, technology, and problem-solving
are not only fun and rewarding, but are
proven paths to successful careers and a
bright future for society. The organization
achieves this mission by offering robotics
competitions for students in elementary
school, all the way through high school.
The competitions value not only gain-
ing engineering skills and creating use-
ful machines, but also things like good
sportsmanship, cooperation, teamwork,
and something FIRST calls “gracious pro-
fessionalism,” a way of doing things where
' students learn and compete like crazy, but
treat one another with respect and kind-
ness in the process.

Last week, ITR volunteered at
the final event of the FIRST Robotics sea-
son—the FIRST World Championship held
in St. Louis, Missouri. The FIRST Cham-
pionship takes up much of the space in the
Edward Jones Dome, home of the St. Louis
Rams NFL team, and America’s Center, a
convention center attached to the dome.
More than 12 thousand students attended
the event, as did thousands of additional
parents, mentors, supporters, and volun-
teers.

Illinois Tech Robotics sent a
delegation of 12 members to St. Louis to
volunteer at the event, which ran from
Wednesday, April 23 through Saturday,
April 26. Members volunteered in a wide
variety of ways that helped further the
program and allowed them to interact
with hundreds of young STEM enthusiasts
over the course of the weekend.

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Several of ITR’s members vol-
unteered as referees for the competitions,
working with teams to ensure they follow
rules of the games and having the tough
job of keeping score for the fast-paced
competitions. Other volunteered as in-
spectors to make sure team’s robots met
size, weight, and material specifications,
and others volunteered in other ways, in-
cluding resetting and repairing the play-
ing field for each competition, running
scoring system software, troubleshooting
robot technical problems, and announc-
ing play-by-play for the competitions as
they progressed.

As always, ITR members en-
joyed volunteering their time to FIRST,
and had a great time working with the
increased energy and competition that
comes with the world championship
event.

Ryan Tan, second year me-
chanical engineering major, volunteered
for the first time at youth events with ITR
this year. “My favorite part was the appre-
ciation that the kids showed all of the vol-
unteers," said Tan. “It was also extremely
exciting to see kids in engineering and so
elated to be working in a STEM field; I’m
used to hearing everyone talk about how
boring math and science are, so working
with them and their cool projects is really
a breath of fresh air. I’ll definitely keep
volunteering in the future; it was a ton of
fun."

Ryan Kamphuis, fourth year
physics education major and ITR’s Vice
President of Philanthropy, said: “it gives
us the opportunity to inspire an inter-
est in the STEM fields, which is not only
something that the world needs, but we
also have an interest in it because we go
to IIT; it gives us an opportunity to vol-
unteer alongside current, past, and future
students of HT."

Karnphuis also has more per-
sonal reasons for giving back to FIRST.
“Being on a FIRST Robotics Competi—
tion team in high school was instrumen-
tal in bringing me to Illinois Tech, and
I wouldn’t be the individual I am today
without that experience; I want others
to be able to have it as well.” A few other
members of Illinois Tech Robotics are
alumni of the FIRST Robotics program,
and enjoy giving back to an organization
that inspired them to pursue science and
engineering futures at Illinois Tech. Kam-
phuis was also awarded the Outstanding
Volunteer of the Year Award among hun-
dreds of other volunteers in March at a
local FIRST Robotics Competition event
hosted at the University of Illinois at Chi-
cago for over 50 student teams.

Illinois Tech Robotics is a
strong and vital force in helping give stu-
dents all over the world opportunities to
explore innovative and exciting futures
in the science and technology fields. For
more information about Illinois Tech
Robotics, visit their website at illinoiste-
chrobotics.org or join their organization
on Hakaink.

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