Local Student Robotics Team Heads To State Competition

OSWEGO, IL — Local students of the FIRST Illinois Robotics, Lego League Team 'Phoenix Cubitects' are on their way to a state-wide robotics contest later in January. Their machine received high marks at the regional qualifying competition on Dec. 7, which means they will advance to the state championship competition on Jan. 18 at Elgin Community College. The most impressive teams on Jan. 18 will be considered for a Global Innovation Award, marking them as some of the most eminent youth minds in robotics in the nation.

Members of the Cubitects team visited Oswego Village President Troy Parlier on Friday Jan. 3 to thank him for his input on their robot's design process. Part of the competition protocol is interviewing local officials for their insights, the students said. They also announced to those present at the Oswego Village Hall on Friday that they were heading to the state championships.

But what exactly is the team's robot, that it has proven such a hit? What precisely does it do?

"Our device automatically detects when temperatures go below freezing," team member and Bednarcik Jr. High School 8th grader Jensen Coonradt said. "and uses an eco-friendly heating pad to warm the pipes back until they're above freezing."

An energy-saving device to keep pipes warm in winter may not be the flashiest thing people think of when they hear the word 'robot,' but its practicality and ingenious design were exactly what the contest judges in December were looking for. The machine was invented specifically with Oswego's Little White School House Museum in mind, Still Middle School 6th grade teammate Aadil Barkat said. He explained that the team interviewed officials there to find out how the building currently winterizes its pipes, then brainstormed alternative methods.

"They're currently keeping the heat on all the time so the pipes can't freeze, and that's not environmentally friendly," Barkat said. "it wastes a lot of electricity... [our robot] doesn't need a plumber, so you could just buy it and plop it on your pipe so you don't have to do anything to the pipe itself."

Besides the heating pad and automatic detection unit, the team members explained that they also developed a basic app concept for their robot. This would allow the device's users to remotely operate it in case of emergencies, or if they just didn't trust automatic sensors.

The team's unofficial head coach, Krauser Barkat, said the kids - who vary in age from 6th to 8th grade and come from several schools throughout Naperville, Montgomery, Aurora and Oswego - designed and built everything about the robot pretty much by themselves. From initial concepts to fabrication to testing, she said it was a student-driven effort.

"Coaches don't do much," she said. "Coaches don't need to know programming, coaches don't need to do anything. They just have to facilitate and kind of direct kids to where they need to be."

In fact, Ms. Barkat explained, adults helping the student teams too much could be grounds for disqualification.

"We're not supposed to be doing anything for them... even on the competition day, they actually have judges floating around that you wouldn't recognize as judges," she said. "If they see coaches helping or parents helping, that automatically disqualifies the team."

"See how they're all together, they're all talking, they're part of this group?" Another parent helper with the team, Laurel Coonradt, mused as the kids took a break from their Patch interview. "That's what the coaches are looking for."