Watertown High Robotics Team Gears up for Fourth Year

The KwarQs are gearing up for another challenge, but the Watertown High School robotics team must wait until Jan. 8 to find out what exactly their robot must be able to do.

The group enters its fourth year, and it has already made its mark in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competitions.

The students are settling into a new room dedicated to robotics in the high school. For the first three years, the group and their adviser, Alan Epstein, worked in a room at the former Phillips School, across the street from the high school.

"The new space is in the high school, and we have new power tools," said junior Campbell Bennie-Underwood. "We are very grateful to the School Committee for the new space and the new tools."

The new room has brand new tools, including a circular saw, a drill press and a ban saw. It also houses three robots created in the past three years for the FIRST competition.

FIRST was created by Dean Kamen, the inventor of, among other things, the Segway scooter. Kamen's goal when he started founded the non-profit organization in 1989 was to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology.

Last year, the KwarQs finished third in the Boston Regional competition, team member and WHS junior Maeve McCluskey told the School Committee last month. Watertown competed with about 50 teams, mostly from the Boston area, but a team from Brazil also entered, Epstein said.

Later, the group took part in the Beantown Blitz using the same robot.

"We won the Beantown Blitz, as you can see by the plaque," McCluskey said.

This is not the team's first taste of success. In the first year, the KwarQs earned the Rookie All-Star Award at the FIRST Boston Regional, Epstein said, which earned the team a trip to Atlanta to participate in the FIRST National Competition.

Last year, the robot had to take part in a soccer game, and work with two robots from other schools.

"It has a camera in the front to acquire a target, line up with the goal and shoot," Epstein said.

Teams get points for accomplishing various tasks, Epstein said, some directly related to the game – in that case soccer – and other times not so directly.

"There too many rules to possibly accomplish all of them," Epstein said.

The big day is Jan. 8, Epstein said. That is the day that the rules and objectives are released for all the teams worldwide. Watertown's group will be at Northeastern University to watch the broadcast.

"They will have an animated movie showing what the game looks like, the general strategy and how the field looks," Epstein said.

The KwarQs will get to work right away, starting with a large brainstorming session. The group must work fast, because they have only six weeks and three days to design, build and test the robot. On Feb. 22, Watertown, like all teams in the FIRST competition, must ship its robot to the competition. The Boston regional is at the beginning of April.

Entering the robotics competitions takes hours of planning, building and practice. It also takes a lot of money. The entry fee for the regional competition is $5,000, which also covers the cost of a kit of parts and electronics, Epstein said.

The team received a couple of donations last month - $10,000 from Raytheon's BBN Technologies and $1,500 from Watertown-based United Electric Controls.

Local businesses also lend a hand in the construction of the robot, Epstein said. United Electrical Controls helps cut parts to fractions-of-an-inch specifications. Bicycle makers Seven Cycles helps by providing welding of parts.

The robot is the primary focus of the team, but Epstein said there is much more to the KwarQs than engineering and technology.

"We run it like a small entrepreneurial non-profit business," Epstein said.

The team has a marketing group, a fund raising group along with the engineering, computer programming and other technical groups. As a result, the team has attracted a variety of students, Epstein said.

"If you have not technology interest at all, you can join and be the web master, do publicity, fund raising and photography," Epstein said.

The team has a good mix of students, including the male-female ration. Last year, the team actually had more girls than boys, Epstein said.

Despite the donations, the team must come up with more money to fund the team Epstein said. The KwarQs will hold a raffle for an iPad. Tickets cost $2, and the drawing will be held at the team's open house on Feb. 17, days before the robot ships.

To find out more about the KwarQs and the Watertown High School robotics program visit the team's website at http://whsrobot.com.