BU student-engineers are creative, innovative, and determined. Whether it’s developing an app at BU Hackathon or designing useful, real-life products for senior projects, the College of Engineering is made up of talented thinkers.
One particular student-engineer has devoted her time to building full-functioning robots. Junior Emily Stern has been a longtime participant of FIRST, which is a worldwide robotics program for kids aged 6-18. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” As the name clearly states, the program encourages young people to be leaders in science and technology.
In between mechanical engineering classes and club sports, Emily spends her time with a FIRST robotics team at the Boston University Academy, where she designs and builds robots with other students. Her group, Robotics team 246, Overclocked, have been competing in tournaments for the past few weeks and have advanced to the World Championships in St. Louis.
In an interview via email, Emily shares her background in FIRST and her thoughts about moving forward in the Robotics competition with her youthful team.
1. How did you first get involved with FIRST? What has your robotics team worked on this semester?
I have been involved with the program for 13 years and I have been a mentor for the past 3 years. FIRST is made up of four different competitions: Jr. FIRST Lego League (ages 6-9), FIRST Lego League (ages 10-14), FIRST Tech Challenge (14-18), and FIRST Robotics Competition (14-18). Once I got to BU I joined FIRST Robotics team 246, Overclocked, of Boston University Academy.
This year our team went above and beyond the call of duty. In the fall semester, which is our off-season, we built Rover, a four-wheel swerve drive robot. Swerve drive allows for all four wheels to spin 360, which will allow the robot to move in any direction. We built Rover not to compete, just to learn how the Swerve Module’s worked as well as building a circular shaped chassis. The project taught us how to build an un-pin-able robot.
We took the knowledge we learned from Rover to help us build Scorpion for our competition season. In FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), each team is given six weeks to design, build, program, wire, and test an entire robot. Next, it is off to competitions! We worked very hard this year to build our robot and we couldn’t be more proud of it.
(Here is a video of Emily’s team running the autonomous program and then the drivers operating the robot, Scorpion.)
(Photo courtesy of FIRST http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc)
2. What attracted you to robotics? Have you always been fond of robots?
I’ve always been interested in understanding the mechanics of how systems work and why they work. I was playing and building with Lego blocks as long as I can remember. When I was five years old, my brother started our high school’s FIRST robotics team. I would attend meetings and build sessions. From the first moment I saw one of the robots, weighing 150 pounds, I knew I had to build one and figure out how it worked.
After I turned ten, I spent four years on a FIRST Lego League (FLL) team learning how to design, program, and build autonomous Lego robots. I graduated from FLL and moved on to the team my brother started. Over the course of four years, I went from builder and machinist, to Chief Engineer and President of the team. I spent every waking moment working with this team and when it came time to choose a college, I knew it needed to be a school with a FIRST robotics team.
3. You have been competing in tournaments for the past few weeks. What’s the atmosphere like? What do you have to do in order to prepare for the competition?
Competing at the robotics competitions is analogous to competing at the Olympics or the NCAA Final Four. It is loud and exciting. There are flashing lights, robots moving at high speeds, and students chanting for their team. It is truly a fun and exciting event to go to.
To prepare for the events, I’d say sleep is important because it is a long four days. You are working nonstop on your robot. You’re constantly improving the robot and working on game strategy to help win the next match with your alliance.
4. What do you like about working with your young team? What have you taught them from your experiences in the program and in college?
I thoroughly enjoy spending time with the students on FIRST team 246. They are truly bright students that inspire me to be a better designer. The students are constantly thinking outside of the box and are always questioning the rules. They taught me to be creative and imaginative with designing and thinking. With my experience in FIRST, I hope to inspire the students with my past experiences in driving a robot, building a robot, designing a robot, and running a team. In addition to using my past experiences in engineering, I teach the students about design from the classes I take at BU. Most importantly, how to manage the very limited time we have to complete an impossible task.
FIRST coined the term “gracious professionals” which states: With Gracious Professionalism, fierce competition and mutual gain are not separate notions. Gracious professionals learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process.
Being a gracious professional is attractive to companies because it shows the company that you are not just working for yourself, but working for the better of the company and your fellow co-workers.
(Emily and her “role model” John Abele, the co-founder and CEO of Boston Scientific and Chairman of the FIRST Board.)
5. How does it feel to be going to the World Championships? What do you hope to achieve with your team? How can people follow the team’s progress?
This year, our team with Scorpion is a Reading District Winner, Dartmouth District Finalist, and Nashua District Semi-finalist. At each of the events, our team won design awards for creativity, quality design, and engineering excellence. Overall, our team finished 16th out of 175 teams in all of New England.
Our team is extremely excited to be attending the World Champs. We hope to do our best and hope our robot operates well. We have high hopes for our team to make it to the final rounds of the competition.
(Far right: Emily repairing her team’s robot.)
The World Championships are from April 22-25. If you can’t attend the event in St. Louis, you can watch the live stream on thebluealliance.com!
Show your support via Twitter and tweet the team @burobotics246.