HADLEY – The robot navigated over the gray terrain and consumed the debris in its wake. It swept the yellow cubes and white orbs into its maw with its clear tendrils, then spit them out onto its own back.
It trudged up the metallic mountain, then halfway up the slope, it dumped the debris into its resting place.
At which point the gray-haired crowd of a dozen applauded, and the teenagers controlling the bot maneuvered it back onto the mat to go after more plastic blocks and whiffle balls.
The six teenagers, all incoming 8th- and 10th-graders, are members of the FIRST Tech Challenge team at Hopkins Academy.
It is an internationally practiced robotic sports competition in which teenagers build and program robots, then use them to complete competitive tasks, such as moving objects into certain areas.
The Hopkins team just finished its first season, and finished 17th in the state competition. Previously, some of its members had competed and done well in a younger FIRST division. From September to February it met in an upstairs room twice a week in the Hadley Senior Community Center.
Bob Cullen, the team’s coach, said he had wanted the team to show the robot to the seniors all season. “It’s hard to do it during the school year, because the time the seniors are here, the kids are in school,” he added.
On Friday, during summer vacation, they were finally able to show off the robot.
The seniors had gathered in the eating space by the time the robotics team finished setting up in the next room. Cullen stood in front of the seniors and explained the competition.
Most of his audience just stared or nodded, but when one of the students brought out a trophy from the state competition, a smattering of applause broke out.
About a third of the seniors moved toward the playing field when the team started its demonstration, but those who did were attentive.
They murmured when the robot hummed to life. They marveled at the controllers – “Like the mouse on your computer,” one man said to another – which wirelessly moved the robot via a system of smartphone apps programmed by the students. They asked questions.
“Did you come up with the design or build through a plan?” asked Ken Jacobson, a 73-year-old Boston University lecturer who lives in Hadley.
“We came up with it,” a few of the youngsters said.
“That’s astounding,” Jacobson replied.
After most of the blocks had been dumped into the boxes on the metal-framed “mountain,” the team offered the seniors a chance to try their hand at the robot. They declined.
“With my luck, I’d probably break it,” Jacobson joked.
Their deference didn’t signal a lack of appreciation, though. Jacobson said he thought the robot was brilliant.
“We so underestimate the ability of our children and youth to accomplish things,” he said.
If they can build something like that, Jacobson added, there’s no reason these student couldn’t take a college-level engineering course, even though they are only 13 and 15 years old.
“It’s about treating you intellectually as equals,” Jacobson said.
