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The Institute for Computational Sustainability supports Code Red club

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By Christianne White and Karina Burbank

The Institute for Computational Sustainability was proud to support Ithaca High School’s Code Red club’s  2016 build and competition. The Code Red Robotics Team 639 is part of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) groups founded by Dean Kamen. In 2016 more than 75,000 students in more than 3,000 teams in 10 countries participated in 74 regional competitions that led to 1 championship competition. ICS supported the local Ithaca High School team Code Red during the six-week build session when students and their mentors design, build and test a robot, and then participate in successive rounds of competition.   Institute for Computational Sustainability especially admires the teamwork and creative problem-solving fostered by Code Red, which will prepare students well for further study in computer science, engineering, and design.

At Code Red students get help and advice from Ithaca High tech teachers but also mentors from the world outside the school. Karina Burbank, Code Red’s public relations officer writes, “Many of these mentors are engineers or other business professionals in the community, who give their time to help students during build season. While Code Red is a student-led team and we always make sure our students are involved and make major decisions, our mentors are vital to our success. They advise and guide students, helping every team member learn as much as possible, each day. This past season, we were lucky to have 16 community mentors.”

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Freshman member Julian Perry works on the 2016 robot Predator’s frame, under the guidance of team mentors. This robot was designed, built and assembled during the 6-week build season.

Luvelle Brown, superintendent of Ithaca City School District commented on the relevancy of the club,” Code Red Robotics has done the best job of any program in the district that I can think of at truly integrating technology, at relationship-building between students and adults, and relevancy, making the curriculum come alive in a way that engages and makes the work important to young people.”

Anyone is welcome to join, and students can participate in a number of ways, so it’s not just for tech-trained nerds or kids who are super smart in math and physics.  Many kids participate all four years of high school even though the time commitment during the six weeks of ‘build’ commits them to at least 31 hours each week over and above their regular classes and homework.

Seniors Pooja Reddy and Kenzo Uchigasaki work together on the 2016 robot frame, even as electronic components are being installed at the front. The team's electronics subteam designs and assembles all of the robot's electronics. Other subteams handle programming, media, CAD, and machining.
Seniors Pooja Reddy and Kenzo Uchigasaki work together on the 2016 robot frame, even as electronic components are being installed at the front. The team’s electronics subteam designs and assembles all of the robot’s electronics. Other subteams handle programming, media, CAD, and machining.

From January to March, Code Red designs and builds their robot to meet the challenge sent out by FIRST, and develops their strategy to use during competitions.    Karina explains, “This challenge is different every year, but it’s always some sort of game that has two alliances of three robots competing against each other. This year’s game was called FIRST Stronghold, and our robot had to cross a series of defenses like a drawbridge, portcullis, and other similar things, as well as shoot balls into a goal, and pull itself up on a five-foot high bar.”

For some students, it’s all about winning, and Code Red did very well during 2016.  Karina let us know that, ”This year, we won the Fingerlakes Regional competition, as well as the Engineering Inspiration Award at Fingerlakes Regional (which celebrates outreach and education about STEM and robotics in a community), both of which qualified us for World Championships. At World Championships, we placed 6th in our division, and got to our division’s semi-finals as an alliance leader. (There are so many teams at champs that they are divided into several, simultaneously playing divisions.) This puts us in the top 2% of teams world-wide this year.”

The FIRST competitions are designed so teams must form alliances and cooperate with other teams in order to win. A few years ago Code Red was instrumental in helping nearby Trumansburg form a team, and this year Trumansburg’s team brought a great robot to competition. In April Team 639:Code Red Robotics posted on their Facebook page,” We’re going to elimination matches!! We won our last qualification match, placing us in 6th place in our division! This means that tomorrow, we will be able to select our own alliance to compete with in the finals. We think that this is the first time in Code Red history that we’ve been alliance captain in Champs elimination rounds, though we’ve participated as part of an alliance before.’  The Ithaca Journal reported that Trumansburg’s team co-founder Kevin Griswold was grateful to Ithaca’s Code Red team, “In our first year when we first formed the team, the whole group of us attended Code Red’s first meeting just to see how they ran things and to use them in a leadership role and as a role model for how we wanted to project ourselves,” Griswold said. “It’s only grown from there. Last year, we collaborated on a few practice runs to compete and practice against each other and did that again this year at the end of build season just to have another team to practice with.”

Code Red is not just about building robots. Karina helped us understand the wider scope of the club’s activities.  “Outside of the build season, we do a lot of community service and demos. This past year, there were 56 students on our team and we estimate that in total, including the individual community service we ask our team members to do, we did about 2,360 hours of community service. We also frequently do demonstrations and presentations about our robot and engineering, especially to young kids at the Sciencenter, 4-H, and local schools. Community service and outreach is a huge part of our team, and we always try to be as active in our community as possible, and help spread knowledge about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) to our community.”  Casey Dill, a Code Red and IHS  alumnus says, ”It’s a team that’s really trying to help the community,  teaching people and getting the younger generation excited about robotics and engineering before they ever get to the high school. Younger kids get a light in their eyes when they see what’s going on.”

Senior Kieran Loehr and junior Abigail Lee talk about the 2014 robot (now used as a demo robot) at the YMCA Healthy Kids Day. At the demo events team members show kids how the robot moves and plays games, and encourage them to come up to touch the robot and ask questions.
Senior Kieran Loehr and junior Abigail Lee talk about the 2014 robot (now used as a demo robot) at the YMCA Healthy Kids Day. At the demo events team members show kids how the robot moves and plays games, and encourage them to come up to touch the robot and ask questions.

Professor Gomes likes to support projects that are both competitive and cooperative, like Code Red.  She is recognized as a leader in the computational sustainability field, having received a second 10-million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the field of Computational Sustainability, so her own projects are both cutting-edge and collaborative, bringing together multiple scientists and institutions from a wide range of fields.

To see Team 639 in action watch this documentary produced by Ithaca College students.

 

IHS junior Code Red member Abigail Lee and mentor Jim Bedore volunteer with Code Red at the Ithaca Sciencenter outdoor playground. Code Red frequently volunteers as a team around Ithaca, to clean up parks, work at the Ithaca Children's Gardens, and more.
IHS junior Code Red member Abigail Lee and mentor Jim Bedore volunteer with Code Red at the Ithaca Sciencenter outdoor playground. Code Red frequently volunteers as a team around Ithaca, to clean up parks, work at the Ithaca Children’s Gardens, and more.