Two robotics teams had twice the fun
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
After a weeklong whirlwind of fun, friendship and fierce mechanical combat, Hawai'i's high school robotics teams from Waialua and McKinley are headed home from the FIRST Robotics Championship at Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.
Both teams are weary but wiser for the experience.
About 300 high school teams from around North America divided into four divisions — Red, White, Blue and Gold — and then put their custom-made robots to the test in a two-day elimination challenge in which remote-controlled automatons lobbed soccer balls into mobile goal baskets.
In the end, a three-team alliance from East Hartford, Conn., Hammond, Ind., and Ypsilanti, Mich., were declared the international FIRST Robotics Champs for 2002.
The 13-member McKinley team finished sixth in the Gold Division before being eliminated in the first round of the quarter-finals.
"We didn't imagine that we'd go that high in our division and then make it into the playoffs," said Milton Lau, McKinley engineering teacher and robotics team adviser. "We were just happy to have had the opportunity to come to Florida and play with the big boys.
"We met a lot friends, and everybody was here to help each other out. We've already got good ideas for next year's project."
Waialua, the Cinderella team from rural O'ahu that hadn't expected to go the nationals, finished 52nd out of 71 teams in the Blue Division after developing technical troubles.
"The team was a little disappointed at first, but I think we're over it," said Aloha Coleman, principal at Waialua High.
"I'm just happy to be here," said Lyle Lopez, a 17-year-old Waialua senior who was finishing his third year with the robotics team. "Everybody was supportive of one another. We had a good time."
Lopez said the problem appears to have been a malfunction in the remote-control radio frequency beam. Whatever it was, the team was never quite able to correct it, he said.
Three years ago, McKinley High and Waialua High became the first Hawai'i teams to get involved with the FIRST Robotics competition, which was established to motivate young people "to pursue opportunities in science."
Both schools did well at the FIRST Regional competitions on the Mainland, but no team from Hawai'i had gone the nationals before this year.
Waialua's robotics team made news after it won the regional championship in San Jose, Calif., two years in a row but didn't have the money to accept an invitation to the national championship.
While other winners from the 17 regional FIRST competitions were packing their bags to compete in Orlando, tiny Waialua would be staying home.
But when Susan Harada, operations manager at Castle & Cooke Hawai'i, read about Waialua's plight in an April 4 newspaper article, she sprang into action. With only three days to meet an extended deadline to accept a spot at the nationals, Harada rounded up nearly enough local corporate donations to make the $30,000 trip possible.
The rest of the money was frantically raised by Waialua students selling chili.
Meanwhile, McKinley High School's robotics team, which had come in second at the Regional FIRST Championship in Los Angeles, announced that it would also be going to the nationals with support money from its sponsors and the school.
Both teams, which are friendly competitors, said they would be going to Florida as ambassadors of aloha.
"We're both representing Hawai'i," said Lau. "We're all on the same side. That's the beauty of this — there are no barriers."
Waialua's team captain, 17-year-old Kory Ikeda, noted that since McKinley is "not in the same division as we are, we can even cheer them on."
Both teams had left for Florida on Monday, and by Tuesday had checked in at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside Resort. They spent most of Wednesday visiting the attractions at Epcot Center, marveling at the sight of squirrels, and visiting with people from all over the nation.
"These are lessons that could never be taught in a classroom or with a textbook," said Coleman. "These life lessons are only learned thought experience."
"We're getting a lot of attention," said Jan Ikeda, lead teacher with the Waialua team. "They've been really good about spreading the aloha. Everybody likes our bright aloha shirts. They want 'em.
"Win or lose, this has been a really great opportunity."
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
