IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2007 - 35

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Rebecca Wepsic Ancheta (beckyancheta@sbcglobal.net) conducts qualitative evaluation research for the
Techbridge Program.

The ladies of
Boston University
Academy's
robotics team take
a moment to relax
during the
Battlecry
competition. From
left: Laurel
Desrosier, Diya
Kazmi, Amy
Katuska, Madeline
Hickman, and
Sarah Esterquest.

I, Robot
Battlecry competition strengthens
bonds among BUA robotics team

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY ACADEMY

This is the last time that Diya, Laurel,
Amy, Sarah, and Maddie will compete
together. It is the end of their season,
with Sarah and Maddie off to college in
the fall. In fact, their college choices
were influenced by their experiences on
the team. No, they are not the starting
five on a basketball team but members of
the Boston University Academy (BUA)
robotics team.
The cold June day began at 5 a.m. in
the basement of the College of Engineering at Boston University, as they
loaded their robot and several bins full
of power tools and materials into a minivan. A group of 12 boys and girls then
ventured on a 45-minute trip to compete at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
for the Battlecry competition. Fortyeight teams competed with the same
robots from the F.I.R.S.T (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology) robotics competition.
For the girls, this was not just a day
to drive, score points, get their hands
dirty in the pit fixing the robot, and to
cheer on their team. This was a day of
finality, the end of a mentoring experience between seniors and younger girls.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY ACADEMY

Laurel fondly remembers, "Sarah and
Maddie had such great determination
and love for the team...They showed me
that I could also make good contributions and be a leader in the field of engineering in the future."
This was a farewell as Sarah was
going on to pursue aeronautical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Maddie was focusing on
mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The BUA Robotics Team competes in
several contests, including the F.I.R.S.T.
robotics competition. Each year, high
school students are presented with a
new game and only six weeks to design
and build a robot from scratch. They are
given a kit of parts with a uniform set of
motors, electronics, and batteries, but
beyond that, the design and manufacturing is up to the students (within certain weight, size, and safety guidelines).
Professional engineers and college students mentor and guide the students in
the engineering process. Local companies sponsor the team, similar to many
local sports teams, except the budget for
a team can range
from US$10,000 to
US$50,000. The BUA
team is sponsored
by the Boston UniThe Team
versity College of
246 Robot
(RoboRhett)
Engineering, Radio
picks up a
Shack, and Quantia.
torroid at the
Battlecry
Competition.

Ladies F.I.R.S.T.
In September, Laurel
and Diya joined the
team, not quite
knowing what to

WINTER 2007/2008

expect. Laurel recalls, "I previously had
little to no exposure to hands-on engineering projects, so I never really
thought about engineering as a big
option for me. This year, the team has
shown me a new passion for inventing
and then building, and surprised me that
I could really be part of making some
complicated and awesome creations."
In the fall, they learned how to
safely use power tools, the lathe, and
the milling machine. Their daily language consisted of words such as gear
ratios, idlers, bearings, couplings, keyway, and set screws. The girls were
never intimidated.
"I never had any sort of defeatist attitude with regard to my gender when it
came to tools and fabrication," Sarah
said. "I honestly think the boys were
more surprised than I was, especially
when I destroyed our playing field with a
reciprocating saw. Girls 'aren't supposed
to do that,' which I think is absolute
nonsense."
They learned about wire gauges,
relays, motors, circuit breakers, quick
disconnects, and crimping. Years before
they will get a driver's license, they drove
robots around an obstacle course and
used the robot to pick up balls. The fall
semester culminated with designing and
building a bread box-sized robot for the
BotBowl competition at M.I.T. The team
designed a robot to line track, then used
a pneumatic piston to "bowl" tennis balls
at plastic soda bottle "10 pins." Laurel
and Diya, who are also on the school's
cheerleading squad, realized that it is
just as much fun to dress up and cheer
for their robot as it is for a sports team,
only the robot is one which they built.

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