Springer High School Wins Luna Robot Rodeo
By Dave Kavanaugh
Luna Community College
When it comes to designing and programming a robot, even the slightest adjustment can have a significant impact on its performance.
That’s one of the lessons learned by several dozen students from high schools across northeastern New Mexico who converged on the Luna Community College campus this past Saturday, Oct. 6, for the first Robot Rodeo.
Robot Rodeo was hosted and coordinated by Luna’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math department with support from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Security. Teams representing Maxwell, Mora, Santa Rosa, Springer and Wagon Mound took part in the competition, which concluded LCC’s Robot Institute, an initiative the college began in September with sessions on its main campus as well as its satellite centers in Springer and Santa Rosa.
Under the guidance of Luna STEM instructors and students, participating high school students learned some basic robotics and the associated computer coding involved. Each school team was assigned a robot – provided by LANS – with which to build and practice.
“It was a great success,” said Francisco Apodaca, director of STEM at Luna. “Teams got to show their robotics knowledge and had a good time doing so.
Saturday’s Robot Rodeo pitted the teams against each other in a tournament, with competition based on how successful each team was in programming its robot to perform certain assigned tasks.
“This was a great experience for our students; they are working collaboratively with each other and other teams to solve complex problems and are utilizing higher learning to do so,” said Springer sponsor Rebecca Ramirez.
Springer’s team emerged as the winner of this year’s competition. The team from Springer captured first place in the Luna Robot Rodeo on Saturday, Oct. 6.
Pictured (l-r) Springer team sponsor Rebecca Ramirez, Luna’s Betsy Sanchez, and Springer students Rebekah Marquez, Diego Ramirez and Antonio Chavez. They were followed by Wagon Mound and Santa Rosa 1. Santa Rosa and Mora fielded two teams apiece.
Apodaca credited members of the student STEM Club, Betsy Sanchez, Nichole Collins, Rachael Lucero and Geno Castillo for helping coordinate Robot Rodeo.
LCC’s Robot Institute and Robot Rodeo are examples of outreach efforts by the college’s STEM department to stimulate interest in science, math and engineering fields.
###
