Malawi RPCV Jack Friedman's team builds "Peace Corps" robot
Read and comment on this story from the Cherry Hill Courier Post on Malawi RPCV Jack Friedman who sponsors the Eastern Regional High School robotics club. "It's not a normal high school activity," said team sponsor Jack Friedman, an Eastern physics teacher. "You can't do 90 percent. These are teens showing professionalism and dedication not seen at this age. They work seven days a week, parents bringing them dinner, working hard for things they want to achieve. That's rare for students to work that hard."
The team, and its robot named Ngwazi, finished 28th in its division in Houston out of 73 teams. Ngwazi means "conqueror" in Malawi. Students quickly adopted the nickname after learning Friedman, in a pinch, used the name of a Malawian ruler to fill out a computer application because only he and colleague Scott Snyder were team sponsors and the application called for three names. Friedman once taught in Malawi for the Peace Corps. "Our robot is very fast and strong," Friedman said. "It has big, pneumatic arms that come out and knock things around." Read the story at:
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Eastern Regional robotics team thriving
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
By BILL DUHART Courier-Post Staff VOORHEES
It may not be rocket science, but it's pretty close.
And the students in the Eastern Regional High School robotics club wear the rocket science label with pride.
Just ask Christine Chang of Voorhees, an Eastern robotic club alum fulfilling a dream of working at NASA.
"Any type of engineering experience is an introduction to rocket science, I suppose," said Chang, 20, a junior at Cornell University working in a co-op program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "That's what gave me the initiative to pursue engineering. I had a dream that I wanted to work at NASA. I thought, `How am I going to get myself there?' I joined the robotics team so I could gain experience and it certainly proved itself useful."
Chang's brother, Andrew, has picked up the family calling. A senior at Eastern, Andrew helped this year's robotic squad walk away with its first regional championship in the FIRST robotic competition last month. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
The experience of the Changs and dozens of others who have participated in Eastern's robotics program has teachers and students buzzing about the possibilities.
The program has flourished, they said, without the financial and technical support many other teams benefit from. They have used bake sales, sponsorships and gifts from relatives to scrounge up the $12,000 annually needed to enter the contest and build robots.
They say the sweat and tears are finally paying off.
"It's not a normal high school activity," said team sponsor Jack Friedman, an Eastern physics teacher. "You can't do 90 percent. These are teens showing professionalism and dedication not seen at this age. They work seven days a week, parents bringing them dinner, working hard for things they want to achieve. That's rare for students to work that hard."
The robots, operated by remote control, resemble the growing craze of battle robots, which fight in a televised, mechanized gladiator competition. The FIRST competition teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way.
Eastern competed in a regional event in March at Drexel University in Philadelphia and at nationals this month in Houston. The team, and its robot named Ngwazi, finished 28th in its division in Houston out of 73 teams.
Ngwazi means "conqueror" in Malawi. Students quickly adopted the nickname after learning Friedman, in a pinch, used the name of a Malawian ruler to fill out a computer application because only he and colleague Scott Snyder were team sponsors and the application called for three names. Friedman once taught in Malawi for the Peace Corps.
"Our robot is very fast and strong," Friedman said. "It has big, pneumatic arms that come out and knock things around."
Students and advisers had six weeks to build the robot. Different specifications each year make it difficult to use last year's model. But students said innovations and basic principles of electronics and mechanics used by Christine Chang and students who have come before have proved to be invaluable.
"The ingenuity of the students and the knowledge of how to do this has been passed down through the years," said team captain Alex Teichman. "I'm teaching people to do my job already. I know they won't have to start from scratch."
The link between present and past remains strong in the Chang household. Andrew Chang, who lives in Voorhees, said watching his sister fueled his passion for robotics and engineering. He kept her well-informed during the competition at Drexel, calling her cell phone three times while it was going on.
"When they finally won, I was on the beach," Christine said. "I just started screaming. It's the first time that our team has placed like that in a competition. I'm so proud of them." Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
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