Learning, winning are the formula for Cochranton robotics | News

COCHRANTON — It’s learning — and also winning — for Cochranton Junior-Senior High School teams when it comes to RoboBOTS, the robot building and battle competition.

Cochranton teams brought home first-place and third-place honors at this year’s event on Saturday in Meadville which had a total of 32 teams from 14 schools in Crawford, Erie and Mercer counties competing.

Cochranton Junior-Senior High had four entries in this year’s competition. Mr. Clean, the robot of its Scrub Daddies team, won the tournament while The Joy of Destroying, the robot of its Bob Ross team, took third.

The tournament, which has high school and middle school students build 15-pound remote controlled robots to do battle, has been held since 2007. It’s coordinated by the Northwest Pennsylvania chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association.

With Saturday’s win, Cochranton team now has won the tournament nine times.

Cochranton heads to the ‘Burg Bash, a national invitational tournament May 17-18 at Robert Morris University outside of Pittsburgh.

Each year since 2011, Cochranton has had at least one team earn third place or higher each year with the exception of 2020 when there was no tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017, 2019 and 2022, teams from Cochranton swept first, second and third places at the competition.

“It’s a very good learning experience and a whole lot of fun,” said Gavin Sekerski, a senior and member of the Scrub Daddies team. “I’ve learned a lot about engineering and the manufacturing process. It’s helped me decide what I want to do — mechanical engineering.”

David Peterson, another senior, who is the driver of Mr. Clean for the Scrub Daddies, said it’s putting ideas into work.

“We’ve learned what it takes to put together a good ‘bot,” he said. “We take pride in it.”

The students learn a lot along the way — including being prepared to replace any part on the robot following a bout.

“We make extra of everything,” said Dawson Carroll, another team member. “There is a lot of impact and a lot of things can happen.”

But, it’s not just designing and building a robot itself. Each team also is judged on how well they documented the entire process.

“There’s a lot to do” to make a robot, team member Nathan Heim said. “We wanted to make it as good as we could — including the portfolio.”

Heim and teammate Parker Haun were charged with creating the portfolio with detailed documentation of team’s activities.

They’d compile a daily report on the work done as well as the economic side of the work.

“It’s making during the money and time are well spent,” Haun said.

Documenting Mr. Clean’s construction truly was time well spent for the Scrub Daddies as the team earned the Best Documentation Award at this year’s tournament.

The winning RoboBOTS program builds upon itself as freshmen begin to take robotics, according to Chris Yost, the technology education instructor at Cochranton. They progress through it during their high school careers building knowledge as they learn.

“Our philosophy is we want to get as many kids as possible involved and engaged in the program as possible,” Yost said.

“We’ve built such a program here, the kids are genuinely are interested to learn the technology behind what we’re doing,” he added. “They then want to go into those skills like engineering and machining and technology-related areas.”

But it all comes down to the individual students, according to Yost.

“They are willing to put the time in,” he said of those involved in RoboBOTS. “We’re three days a week after school, usually two and one half hours, then every other Saturday — on top of being in class 44 minutes every day.”

Some students come back during their study hall period as well.

“Like anything in life, you get out of it what you’re willing to put into it,” Yost said. “If you put very little time in, you can’t be mad at anybody but yourself at the end of the day if you don’t perform well.”

RoboBOTS 2024 Results

First — Mr. Clean, Cochranton team: Scrub Daddies

Second — Neil, Cambridge Springs team: Interstellar

Third — Bob Ross, Cochranton team: The Joy of Destroying

Best Documentation (voted on by quality manager in the tooling and machining industry) — Mr. Clean, Cochranton team: Scrub Daddies

Best Sportsmanship (voted on by team advisers) — Cochranton.

Coolest Bot (voted on by students) — Neil, Cambridge Springs team: Interstellar.

Best Engineered (voted on by judges) — Neil, Cambridge Springs Team: Interstellar.

King of the Ring (voted on by announcers) — The Dorito, McDowell High School, McDowell Robotics.