Team 120 Mentors- Thank You!

The students in the Youth Technology Academy at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) participate in the FIRST Robotics competitions every year.  Team 120, Cleveland’s Team, is made up of high school students from various high schools in the Cleveland area.  The team will work hours upon hours for six weeks to build their robot in order to be ready for competition. In addition,  many adult mentors from various industries volunteer their time to guide, teach and mentor the students during the build and competition season. We send out a big “Thank You” to them all!

Listed below are the mentor’s for the 2017 FIRST Robotics Season:

GEORGE BILOKONSKY, Executive Director of Technology Academies at Tri-C.

ROBERT GEST, TechniFab. (former Team 120 member)

KEVIN SERRAN, YTA Coordinator. (former Team 120 member)

 

TRACIE HAYNIE, YTA Coordinator

HAYLEY BROWN, YTA Coordinator

RYAN WERNER, YTA Field Specialist (former Team 120 member)

KE’ONDRE MELL. YTA Mentor (former Team 120 member)

LARRY OBERLE, NASA

RICK BEYERLE, GraphTech

DAVE STALTER, Rockwell Automation

 

End of the Semester: Drone Final

Flying a small Hubson Drone through the hoop.

As most students are hitting the books and studying for finals, Dr. Lisa Suarez’s classes were hitting the skies to prepare for their spring final exam. The first two weeks in May, over one-hundred Cleveland Municipal School District students who were enrolled in Tri-C’s  EET2530 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle came down to the YTA’s Robotic Bay (Metro Campus) to fly a 500mm drone (Wheelbase or motor to motor diagonal size: 500mm. )

During the spring semester, students learned how to build and program the UAVs.  Other components of the class include Rules of Flying, FCC policy, Soldering, GPS Way Points and navigation.

Throughout the semester, smaller Hubsan drones

Hubsan Drone

 (Drone Size: 10.5 x 10.5 x 2.5 cm) were flown inside the classroom to understand the concept and mechanics of flying. For the students final exam, they were to fly the 500 drone through an obstacle course and land back at home base. Competitions were also held at Benedictine High School in Cleveland, OH, on their football field.

 

 

MC2 STEM High School Student at Tri-C Metro Campus

MC2 STEM High School Student at Tri-C Metro Campus

Benedictine High School

Boys Leadership Academy visits YTA

The Kenneth Clement Boys Leadership Academy visited Tri-C’s Metro campus on May 9^th and one of their tour stops was the Youth Technology Academy’s Robotics Bay.  Over 40 middle schools students were able to view various technologies including drones, (UAVs), Team 120’s FIRST robot, VEX robotics and 3D printing machines.  Students were able to participate by catching balls thrown by the robot and driving or controlling the robot to make it move in various directions.

This was the second year the Kenneth Clement Boys Leadership Academy has visited the YTA.

Students learn about the FIRST Robotics and the YTA’s 2017 Team 120 Robot.

Students learn about the FIRST Robotics and the YTA’s 2017 Team 120 Robot.

KCBLA Students view the 3D printer as YTA Student, Mark Goeser explains the process.

Manufacturing and Technology Expo

Students and Staff from the Youth Technology Academy were invited to design and host a “Drone Zone” at this year’s Manufacturing and Technology Conference and Expo held at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland in May. Youth Technology Students created an obstacle course where conference attendees could practice flying quad copters and participate in a timed competition. Students were also able to talk with various experts in different industries, broadening their understanding of the various STEM careers that are open to them.

Cedar Point 2017

2017 marked the fourth year that YTA participated in Cedar Point’s Physics, Science and Math week.  Over 80 students from various Cleveland schools attended the competitions that were held May 15 through May 18 at the park in Sandusky, OH. The competitions were created to best reflect the engineering principles that were covered in the courses taught by YTA in their home schools. Students from our Unmanned Aerial Vehicle course participated in the GPS navigation system after completing a flying competition held at Tri-C the week prior. Students were required to map out a “flight plan” using various GPS way points located around the park to achieve the fastest route. Select students who were enrolled in YTA’s Basic Robotics course were also invited to bring the robots they built and programmed in class to participate in a timed maze competition at the park. YTA is thankful to Cedar Point for inviting us to participate in such a fun and important event!

John Marshall and NEO Prep Students practicing.

FRC Team 120 Robot at the Point!

NEO Prep Students compete with their Robots

Career Night at the YTA

The Youth Technology Academy hosted a National Science Foundation Career Night on Thursday, March 9, 2017 from 5:00-7:00PM at Tri-C’s Advanced Technology Training Center. YTA invited professionals to come speak to YTA and National Science Foundation Scholars about what steps they took to get into their current career. The presenters that made up the panel were Jim Lustig, a senior engineer from General Electric, Brad Aronson, a Quality Assurance Specialist and Design Engineer from Surgtech, Alex Natal, an Occupational Therapist with Genesis, and Drew Odum, a lawyer with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Twenty-six National Science Foundation Scholars attended from various Cleveland high schools to enjoy the presentations and ask questions about the different careers and the training that goes into them. We hope that Career Night will help inspire CMSD high school students to pursue higher education with a focus on STEM studies.

NSF Tech Workshops

YTA recently held the fifth installment in a series of seven National Science Foundation Tech Workshops. Twelve CMSD students participated in a two-day remote control workshop at Tri-C’s Advanced Technology Training Center. Students learned how to build and program a remote control that they then used to operate Arduino robots. Students first participated in a lesson on coding, and then applied what they learned to their remote controls and robots that they later got to take home.

YTA will be hosting two more NSF Tech workshops this semester. The next workshop will cover quadcopters and will be held Saturdays May 6 and May 13. Students will get to learn about the make-up of quadcopters and “First Person View” (FPV) flying techniques during the two-week workshop, while also taking home their very own quadcopter and tablet. YTA will then hold a second quadcopter workshop on Saturdays, May 20 and June 3. For more information, or to sign up a student, please contact Hayley Brown at Hayley.brown@tri-c.edu.

FIRST Robotics: Regional & National Competions

The Youth Technology Academy’s Team 120 made their 2017 debut at the FIRST Robotics regional held in Palmetto, South Carolina, March 2-4, 2017. This was the first competition since Team 120 won the 2016 FIRST World Championship last April and they did not disappoint. Though this year’s team consists of mostly newcomers to YTA, they were able to build a competitive robot that impressed judges and participants alike. While last year’s robot “stormed the castle,” crossing a variety of obstacles, shooting boulders into goals, and climbing a tower, this year’s robot required a different set of skills. The theme this season was “Steamworks,” a steampunk game that required robots to shoot balls (“fuel”) into a boiler, deliver gears to an airship, and climb aboard for “take-off.” Team 120 took on the challenge, using their 6-week build season to build an impressive robot that was able to shoot more balls than most other competitors, and climb the airship to earn extra points during each match. Thanks to the hard work and efforts of our students and industry mentors, Team 120 received the Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox for their unique design and game-play.

This past weekend, March 31-April 1, Team 120 competed at the Buckeye Regional held in Cleveland at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center. Though Team 120 did not make it to the finals, the students were able to figure out what changes they need to make to their robot before Worlds later this month. Our team will be heading to Houston for FIRST World’s Competition April 19, and our students are looking forward to the excitement of competing on a national stage once again. Good luck Cleveland’s Team!

Team 120 waits to compete next at Palmetto, SC

Team 120 Robot on the playing field at Palmetto, SC

Team 120 waiting to compete next at Palmetto, SC

Buckeye Regional at the Wolstein Center, Cleveland, OH

PIT area at the Buckeye Regional, Cleveland, OH

YTA Reaches out to Youth

Cuyahoga Community College’s Youth Technology Academy students demonstrated the Championship FIRST robot and robotics technology to a group of over 200 elementary school students at Hambden Elementary School, Chardon, OH on February 10, 2017. The energetic students, who assembled in the gym on a Friday afternoon, learned about the Youth Technology Academy, FIRST Robotics and the STEM field during the 40-minute assembly.  The YTA students demonstrated how their championship robot works by asking volunteer students to catch a ball thrown by the robot. There was a question and answer session at the end of the 40 min presentation where specific questions such as “How long does it take to build a robot?” and “Why did you use treads on this robot and not wheels…” were answered in depth. Hambden Elementary School is planning to visit the YTA Robotic Bay at Tri-C’s Metro Campus.

YTA Coordinator, Hayley Brown asking students questions

Students Mark Goeser and  Airry White-Smith, YTA Coordinator Susan Southard and Student Jak’I Repress

Repress, White-Smith and Goeser discussing UAV technology

Teacher Training: Dones

On a recent Saturday several area high school teachers gathered at the ATTC building on Tri-C’s Metro Campus to learn about drone technology from YTA Preceptor Dr. Lisa Suarez, PhD. YTA offers college credit for high school students who enroll in EET 2530 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Classes are held either during the day at the students’ high school or after school on Tri-C’s Metro Campus. Students learn about drone technology, drone etiquette, coding and advanced math concepts.  By offering technical training to high school teachers the teachers will have a better understanding of the material covered in class and can assist in the learning outcomes. In addition, teachers can receive CEU’s for participating in select YTA technical training sessions and a stipend. The National Science Foundation supplies support for teacher technology training at the YTA.