By: Brendan Losinski | Troy Times | Published March 8, 2024
TROY — Troy’s robotics teams will show off their ingenuity and hard work during a demonstration hosted by the Troy Public Library Saturday, April 27.
With more than 50 robotics teams in the Troy School District, the community has become a center for teams in the FIRST, Tech Challenge and Lego leagues for high school, middle school and elementary school students, respectively. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
“The inspiration came from our getting a lot of requests from robotics teams to do demonstrations at the library,” said Keegan Sulecki, the library’s head of youth services. “We thought it would be better if we provided them with a dedicated time and space to show all of their hard work off. When they asked for these demonstrations, it would have otherwise been short notice, and we couldn’t guarantee an audience. This way, by grouping it together formally, we can ensure there are people who can see their accomplishments and that we can better show people how robotics in Troy is such a big deal.”
This event takes place 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, April 27 at the Troy Community Center, 3179 Livernois Road, in rooms 304 and 305. Registration is encouraged, but not required. This event is provided in partnership with the Troy Robotics Foundation. Teams and attendees can register on the library’s calendar page, troypl.librarycalendar.com/events/upcoming. There is no cost for either teams or attendees. Applications are due by Monday, April 8.
“We hope to make Robotics Demonstration Day a twice yearly event to support teams in recruiting new members, sharing information about robotics and its growing importance, and giving teams an opportunity to work on those communication and teamwork skills before competition,” Sulecki said. “With the now-established Troy Robotics Foundation, we had an excellent opportunity to create a partnership to host this event.”
The Troy Robotics Foundation supports the robotics programs in Troy, although it is not part of the district, said its president, Srinivas Simhan.
“For all of the robotics extra curricular programs in the Troy district, we support their growth and advancement. Specifically, when you see how the high school teams want to build a nonprofit to support the teams, TRF has to come in and promote the program. We host events, help out at workshops and camps, and so forth. We are not part of the school district, but we support their programs. It’s similar to an athletics booster program for sports programs.”
Each team that attends will have a space to demonstrate what their team has been doing and there will be a field for the teams to use their individual robots as they would at competitions.
“Each team registers for a table, and they can decorate the space. Then they bring in some of their fields where they can safely drive the robots while people look on,” said Sulecki. “If they are at all interested in learning more about robotics and the creativity and hard work of Troy students, it would be a really good event to attend and support.”
Simhan said the teams will show off their accomplishments and inform the public, including potential future robotics team members, how the teams work, what competitions are like, and what the students on each team do.
“At the high school level, teams will show those in the middle school what they can expect,” he said. “The teams will be demonstrating their robots and competitions. They will show off their designs and what they do at competitions. We will focus on the three predominant age-level programs in Troy. … They show how to build the parts from scratch, how to program in Java, how to operate the robots and how to construct the robots at the high school level.”
Simhan encourages anyone who is interested to drop by and check out the event and see what robotics can offer.
“Come and discover robotics programs for all three grade levels and see where your kid can get involved in Troy,” said Simhan. “Teams are bringing their robots from all three levels. We like to think of it not only as kids building robots but as robots building kids as they learn practical skills, teamwork and communication abilities.”
Visit troypl.org or call (248) 524-3538 for more information.