March 31, 2010 Correction:
Ryan Wilmes (in the photo) is working on a cart, not a robot for TechHOUNDS. 

By Priya Patel
<[email protected]> 

Continuing in the steps of the original club started here in 2001 by teacher Dave Smith, TechHOUNDS will compete at the Atlanta International Championships on April 15-17 at the Georgia Dome.

This competition is the final in a series of the FIRST Robotics Competition hosted by the national organization, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Last weekend, the team was crowned 2010 Boilermaker Champions at the Boilermaker Regional held at Purdue; their robot won the Xerox Creativity Award, a judge-based award for unique and creative design.

The Atlanta competition is the largest of the competitions, with over 400 international teams from at least seven different countries. Each team is given six weeks to build a robot from scratch to participate in a game. According to George Giltner, team sponsor and industrial technology teacher, this year’s game is a game called Breakaway.

“This year, the robots are on a basketball sized field that has two goals, one on each end. The field is divided into thirds by bumps and the robots have to score as many goals as possible in two minutes,” Giltner said.  

Meera Chander, co-captain of TechHOUNDS and senior, said, “Although our team is primarily student-led, we do all of this with the help of our skilled teachers and professional mentors who are engineers, scientists, technicians, and programmers from actual companies.”

Giltner said he agreed and said the experts the students work with allow them to be exposed to the technology and science involved in engineering.

According to Chander, this year’s robot design was chosen because the team decided that it would be an effective, yet unique way to complete the engineering task presented. Chander said that during the competition, the team is allowed to enhance and improve the robot between matches; however, they are not allowed to make any changes to the robot in between the competitions.

Though the TechHOUNDS are a school-sponsored team, funding is completely raised by the members. Giltner said, “Every competition has an entry fee of $5000 and we participate in three competitions. The team has to raise all of the money, so they seek out local sponsors everywhere to get the funds necessary.”