McKinley High School has a lot to be proud of as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. Over the years it has graduated an array of civic leaders, war heroes and generations of productive members of society, many from the ranks of immigrants.
As an educator, I am happy to report that McKinley is staying ahead of the curve with a respectable Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program that is drawing national attention. I discovered this when I was invited to meet McKinley’s Robotics Club, which recently returned home after placing sixth in the NASA-sponsored FIRST International Robotics Competition in St. Louis.
There is a wide range of robotics competitions. Some require robots that are built in a standardized format, whereas others can be constructed in any size or manner. This year’s NASA FIRST competition had a recycling theme and required 120-pound robots to independently identify and move large shipping bins and a plastic garbage can to a scoring platform.
I had the opportunity to watch a video of the St. Louis competition and get a private demonstration of the robot from the entire team.
The McKinley students built a nearly 6-foot-tall robot, the maximum height allowed. Equipped with infrared sensors and specialized arms, the robot was designed to quickly pick up a garbage can and collect an 8-foot-tall stack of plastic totes. The robot had to then move them quickly across the floor to the scoring platform, without dropping anything.
This was impressive, particularly standing at the control station watching a very large, very fast machine whirring back and forth while grabbing and stacking plastic bins. The students showed me the special abilities that they designed to allow movement in any direction independent of the way the robot was facing. Sensor design, hydraulic arm design, control programming and speed enhancements were all explained and shown along with how they decided to meet the precise contest specifications.
As if that were not enough, they also brought out last year’s robot for a different competition that had required throwing a series of large balls in a basket. While this year’s competition required careful handling and stacking, the previous year’s robot was much faster and, the team told me, more fun. The precision handling and speed combined with ball throwing using a limited amount of air to drive the throwing arms was definitely cool to watch. The students even let me drive last year’s robot. They were, however, a bit more protective of this year’s precision stacker.
After an hour of talking to and playing with these skilled young robotics technicians, my world was much brighter. The program is run by volunteer engineers and local tech companies, and sponsored by Hawaiian Electric Co. to give the McKinley students the chance to compete in the fast-developing world of robotics. These kids are doing fine as part of the first Hawaii team to go to the FIRST Robotics World Championship.
I’m thrilled about the accomplishments of the McKinley team. I’m more convinced than ever Hawaii students can be truly competitive with mainland schools in bleeding-edge technology such as robotics. I’m also certain we’ve got the raw talent to create first-rate technology in this state. However, that’s not enough.
To create a viable tech industry, we need to follow up with world-class incubators, venture capital and the rest of the infrastructure that will grow the tech and life sciences companies that will provide better-paying jobs for kamaaina than the hospitality industry that dominates our state.
Mike Meyer, formerly Internet general manager at Oceanic Time Warner Cable, is now chief information officer at Honolulu Community College. Reach him at mmeyer@hawaii.edu.
