Whiz Kid: Team "Hawk Bots"

Name: Nathan Stonestreet, Kelson Mills, Cameron McMillan, Brendan Greetham and Christopher Rodgers

Age: Nathan, 16; Kelson, 14; Cameron, 16; Brendan, 14; Chris, 14

School: 

Accomplishment: Nathan, Kelson, Cameron, Brendan and Chris of the "Hawk Bots" will be traveling to San Mateo, CA this Saturday to compete in the Northern California Regional Botball Robot Tournament. Out of the 22 West coast teams made up of middle and high school students, the "Hawk Bots" will be the only ones participating from the Pacific Northwest. The winner of the tournament will advance to the Global Conference this summer.

Key to Awesomeness: The boys will be battling at least five rounds (three seeding rounds and a double-elimination round), using two pre-programmed robots, "Twitchy" and "Son of Roomba," during the competition.

However, the event does come with a hefty price tag. Last year, the team had to sit out due to lack of funding. This year, Ahlheim received a $2,500 grant from the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) Institute for Practical Robotics. 

The students must to come up with a strategy to earn points or in some cases, keep opponents from scoring. While it's possible to earn up to 180 points, she said the team is hoping to collect at least 80 points.

When the students were asked what they would have done differently, they all agreed that they've spent too much time strategizing and not enough testing the robots. 

"The most challenging thing was probably staying on task," said Cameron. "When we're sitting here playing with Legos, it's easy to get distracted." 

Despite their amusement with rubber band guns made of Legos, they all stressed the importance of maintaining positive team dynamics. Each member of this team all said they considered themselves a self-proclaimed nerd. 

Cameron, who called himself the "Evil Overlord," proudly took on the role as the speaker for the group. 

Chris was in charge of documenting the team's progress since end of February.

Brendan was responsible for programming and brainstorming the project.

Kelson did the building with Nathan, who also programmed the robots.

Ahlheim said while constructing robots require math and logic, it also offers her students an engineering pathway for the future like managing projects and designing robots.

"It'll be exciting to see their eyes once they walk into the arena," said Ahlheim.

"They'll be shocked for a while."

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Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to akiko.oda@patch.com. Be sure to include all of the following information:

• Nominator's Name
• Nominator's E-Mail
• Whiz Kid's Name
• Whiz Kid's Age
• Whiz Kid's School
• Whiz Kid's Accomplishment
• Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness (what made him/her successful?)

If your nominee is selected, we'll contact you and asign a photographer to take a photo. For questions, e-mail akiko.oda@patch.com.