Honolulu, Hawaii – Soldiers assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 65th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, participated as judges for the Annual Friends of Hawaii Robotics Competition as part of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus Stan Sheriff Center, here, recently.
Nearly 40 high schools from Hawaii, Washington State, South Carolina as well as 11 international teams, China, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia competed in the high-tech sporting event.
“It’s exciting to see it all come together for those who’ve been working hard on the robots,” said Maj. Stewart Bailey, 2nd BCT assistant operations officer. “Students work in teams to design and build a robot from inception to competition in six weeks, which can break through the opponents’ defenses and then shoot a ball through goals to score points.”
Robotics is something Bailey has had a passion for since his deployment to Afghanistan.
“I do not have an engineering degree, however, I work on an army robotics test project in Afghanistan and was a journeyman electrician,” he said.
The event provided Bailey an opportunity to serve as a mentor to the children.
“I like the opportunity to interact with the students and give them motivation and encouragement,” he said. “Sometime there are setbacks which are important. Setbacks create the drive for the students to create a better robot.”
“Because we judged the in teams of two, we were able to pull aside different members of the team who may not necessarily be the spokesperson,” Bailey added. “We would find opportunities for mentorship.”
Even though this event demanded rigorous hours from the competitors and judges, everyone involved enjoyed be a part of such a wonderful event.
For Capt. Chris Frantz, also a technical judge and the plans officer for 2nd IBCT, he was very impressed with the competency and skill of the competitors; the event provided him an opportunity to spend time with the children.
“It’s a great program. It was great to see it has such high participation. I look forward to doing it again next year. … It has everything to do with the kids,” said Frantz. “As a judge, they give you their attention. They are there to compete, they want to do well.”
Date Taken: | 04.16.2016 |
Date Posted: | 04.29.2016 18:24 |
Story ID: | 196961 |
Location: | HI, US |
Web Views: | 205 |
Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Robotics; a Passion Shared by both Soldiers and Students, by SFC Carlos Davis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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