PEMBROKE — Robots will invade the Jones Center on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke on Saturday.
The main gym will be the site of the county’s first-ever Thundering Herds of Robots event. It is a robotics competition pitting high school students from across North Carolina against one another. A dozen teams are scheduled to compete, including Robeson Early College High School’s ROBCOBOT.
“This is not just about robots,” Keenan Locklear, the team’s coach. “They gain leadership skills and I have found since they’ve been involved in these robotics competitions, they are doing better in school. Some have found something they didn’t know they had an interest in, like software programming and mechanical engineering.
“We are trying to get our students interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and this is the first step.”
The host of Saturday’s competition will be FIRST North Carolina, a nonprofit created to inspire young people to pursue careers in science and technology and to help them acquire the skills to compete in a technologically-driven economy.
There are 21 members on the ROBCOBOT squad. They will be competing in a game called Steamworks, in which a three-team alliance will guide their robots in an attempt to score points by building steam pressure, gathering materials to ignite rotors, and boarding robots onto an airship.
THOR is the state’s first off-season robotics competition for FIRST Robotics Competition teams. The “build season” for FIRST begins in January. Teams are given six weeks to design, build, program, and test a robot that can perform the necessary tasks to succeed in each year’s game.
Students work closely with teachers, like Locklear at Robeson Community College’s Early College, and volunteer mentors. Locklear said they are in need of mentors to assist during each phase.
“The students come up with the design,” he said. “There are no instructions … just a tub or parts. That’s why we need mentors from the community to assist with the engineering and testing.”
The Early College team was formed in 2016. Locklear, a two-time UNCP graduate who teaches Chemistry and Physical Science at the Early College, learned about the FIRST organization while serving on the N.C. Board of Science, Technology and Innovation.
“My goal is to start up clubs at each of the middle schools in Robeson County,” he said. “I have seen my kids mature in the areas of public speaking. They come to high school thinking they want to be a doctor and that’s all they think.
“But once they get involved in robotics, they start thinking about designing prosthetics. This exposes them to other areas that they can succeed.
“We have some smart students. They just need to be challenged. Robotics gives them the opportunity to rise to the challenge.”