Hi-Line Living: Robots on the Hi-Line

While many high school classrooms may be empty during lunchtime, Chris Comp's classroom seems to be the complete opposite. Lunches and snacks are spread over the tables but are greatly ignored as the students in the room gather around computers, 3D printers, gadgets of all shapes and sizes and, of course, robots.

This year marks two milestones for the club with a freshman driving a team all the way to state.

The driving force behind the autonomous robot the Havre High School Technology Student Association is taking to the state technology conference and competition in Billings next week was freshman Gabriel Edmonds. At only 15, Edmonds, who said that in the future he would like to major in robotics engineering and programming, said he wanted to make the robot because he is really interested in technology.

"It is the first year I have had a freshman just stand up and say 'I'm going to do this!'" Comp said. "We've had robots before but this is the first time we had the autonomous part."

Havre High's TSA

The national Technology Student Association is one of the eight federally recognized career and technical student organizations, and strives to give middle and high school students the chance to grow in leadership, teamwork, community service and personal growth.

The Montana chapter of the TSA received its state charter in 1991, but the Havre High club is relatively new, having only started four years ago. Comp, who is the technology and vocational skills teacher as well as the advisor for the Havre High TSA club, said he started the club because he wanted to be able to create more opportunities for students to become involved.

The high school club has been working hard since their first lunchtime meeting in Comp's classroom at the beginning of the school year. In the first meeting, Comp said, he just showed the attending students the different materials they could use to make projects such as paper rockets and robots and showed them the 3-D printers.

He said he wanted the students to discover what they like and were interested in. Comp also said that the club did not wait to start getting prepared for the state competitions; they were building to competition from day one.

The clubs' focus this Wednesday was rooted on the technology surrounding them, because on April 9 and 10, four of 10 active members of this club will be traveling to Billings for the state conference and competitions

This competition will be memorable as it is the first time in school history an autonomous robot, one that works independently on a computer-downloaded program, will be in the state competition.

The four students who will be going to state are Skyler Buck, Kade Turner, Andrew Nelson, all 16, and Gabriel Edmonds, 15. Out of these four students, three of them - Buck, Turner and Edmonds - will be on the team that is competing in the VEX Robotics Competition.

Comp said that the VEX Robotics Competition is becoming the highlight of the state competitions. He said that the public is allowed to come and in the previous three years he has taken his club to state, many students and adults have attended to watch.

Working as a team

Each member of the robotics team plays their own role. Edmonds did the coding on the computer, while club Vice President Turner did a lot of the structural work on the robot. The final member of the team, club President Buck, said he does the heavy lifting.

The club used a program that the members can download on the computer, and Edmonds said he inserted the script, which is the language that tells the robot how to move, into the program. He said he then downloaded the program to the robot and wirelessly connected his robot to his hand-held remote.

The VEX Robotics Competition this year is called "In the Zone" and requires the robot to stack cones onto goals or into colored zones to earn points. The winner of the Montana competition will move on to the national competition in Atlanta June 22-26.

Comp said that at the end of the competition there is also an awards ceremony honoring the three top competitors from each of the 22 technological events at the state competition with awards.

The four students who are attending the state conference said they are looking forward to the conference. Edmonds said that he feels "awesome" about having his robot in the VEX Robotics Competition and he also said he can't wait to meet the other students who will be attending.

Comp said he feels the same way.

"This kind of competition is a learning experience and a social challenge," he said. "This competition helps the students learn to work with each other-be a team as an individual group and also a (Montana state) team as a whole."

The adviser and club members also said it was a bonding experience to make the money to attend the conference. Buck said that they do different fundraisers such as 50/50 and concessions at sporting events. Comp said that they wanted to relate their fundraisers to their club. The club members had their robot out on display during the Christmas Carnival and had the robot pick the ticket when the club did their 50/50.

Comp said he hopes that the high school club can garner more interest and become bigger. Each year, representatives from Havre high activities and clubs go to the middle school and tell the future freshmen about the ways they can be involved in high school.

The presentation last year is how freshman Edmonds first learned about TSA at the high school and became interested about the club. Buck said that Edmonds is the only student who approached him to ask questions after he finished his presentation.

Hoping to grow the club

Comp said he is very proud of his club this year. He is most proud of "the excitement my students bring and the autonomous part of the robot; watching my students learn to do that on their own," he said. "The club is about them; it is a student-run organization."

Havre High School Principal Mike Haugen said he is excited about the opportunity for the high school club to attend the conference and competitions. This is "a group of young men who show up daily," to learn and work with technology. He said he and the school are very proud of the club.

Comp said he is also thankful to the school, district and community for the support for the Havre high club.  He said that Triangle Communications gave the club a grant for a 3D printer and then the district matched the amount and they were able to buy a second, bigger one.

He said he is looking forward to watching technology-based activities, such as the TSA club at the high school, expand throughout Havre. He said he would like to see a TSA club open up at the middle school.

He wants "to encourage the whole community to come check out what the TSA club is working with," Comp said.