Monterey Herald – Bailey Bedford – Mar. 8th, 2019
PACIFIC GROVE — Local students are putting a robot they designed and built up against robots of teams of older students in Fresno this weekend. The young team believes the future is theirs.
“These kids have literally put in over 100 hours into their robot and team and has been one of the most inspirational, if not the most inspirational thing I’ve been directly a part of,” said Matt Lussier, the team coach, by email.
The team brought together students from seven different schools under the team name Plus Ultra in a competition promoted as the “ultimate Sport for the Mind” the students will see the results of six weeks of hard work as their robot earns them points by completing assigned task.
“It is not like a science fair at all,” said Carlos Michel-Luhrs, who is the oldest member of the team at 18 and has competed in two previous years. “It is very competitive based. It feels like you are playing a sport or you’re on a sports team.”
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an opportunity for students to learn skills like engineering and programming in a setting that encourages teamwork and positive competition. Each year a new task is given. This year there is a space theme and the robots earn points by leaving an elevated platform, which is their “habitat,” securing bins in “rockets” and “cargo ships” by placing “hatch panels” over holes, loading “cargo” in the form of balls into the secured bins and returning to their “habitat.”
According to the FIRST webpage, every team needs “10 or more high school-aged students willing to put in time after school.” But there is not actually a lower age limit for participants.
Ultra Plus consist of eight middle school girls, one elementary school girl and only one high school boy. And they are willing to put in time after school. The students have been giving up their Saturdays and some of their after-school hours. The students come from Pacific Grove Middle School, Stevenson Lower Campus, Arboles Middle School, the International School of Monterey, San Benancio School, Sam H. Lawson Middle School, and Pacific Grove High School.
Lussier believes that Plus Ultra with an average age of 12 is the youngest team to ever compete in the For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology Robotics Competition. While FIRST can’t confirm for certain that Plus Ultra is the youngest team, Kelli Plasket, a marketing writer for FIRST, said by email that “an average age of 12 for a FIRST Robotics Competition team is certainly rare and makes them among the youngest.”
Many of the teams they compete with are associated with schools. But Plus Ultra formed as a community team so they could draw on diverse talents and perspectives from multiple schools and not have to worry about the team being ended if the school cut funding.
“Where we live in the Monterey Peninsula, we have some really great schools in terms of financial stability but there is just simply not enough kids in each school to have a sustainable program,” said Michel-Luhrs. “So, the Plus Ultra team being a community team can get all the funding it wants through different sources, and it can pull from any school. So it is a very sustainable team.”
“Because we are a community team, we are planning on recruiting people from all the schools that don’t really have a robotics team, that way we can get people who wouldn’t have the opportunity otherwise,” said Alden Sherrill, the team captain.
The team has received support from many sources including Apple, Disney Enterprises, Inc., FIPA Inc., DeWalt, The Brin Wojcicki Foundation, and local families and businesses.
The name of the team was taken from the Disney movie “Tomorrowland.” In the movie, Plus Ultra, which is Latin for “further beyond,” is the name of a secret society focused on a scientifically and technologically advanced world. Disney has provided the team with a limited usage license that allows the team to use the name and logo.
“The Plus Ultra motto in the movie ‘Tomorrowland’ and in that series is ‘tomorrow is ours’ and I think that is a very good representation of our team,” said Alden. She says the team is made of young individuals or underrepresented minorities and around 70 percent of them are interested in careers in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math field.
“Most kids, especially in high school or in middle school, they can probably name the top 10 players of baseball, basketball, football, soccer, but if you ask them to name more than one scientist, they just can’t do it,” said Michel-Luhrs. “And we want to change that idea because the scientists and engineers are the ones changing the world.”
Lussier says that the girls on the team have expanded his hopes for the future of the team and that they have suggested trying to solve a practical problem, possibly by partnering with an agricultural company in Salinas Valley.
Ultra Plus also has a FIRST LEGO League, Jr. team and a FIRST LEGO League team that are focused on elementary and middle school students.
Thursday was the team’s first opportunity to practice on an actual field. The competition began on Friday and will continue through Saturday.
The event at the Fresno convention center is free to attend. Information about the event and access to a webcast of the competition may be found at https://bit.ly/2tRssJU. The team also plans to compete in the Monterey Bay Regional competition in Seaside, which is scheduled for March 21- 24.
Read the full article at https://www.montereyherald.com/2019/03/08/monterey-peninsula-robotics-team-is-young-but-confident/