BCUG Guest Speaker

Darrell Gray

The Robotics Competition Team

"Driven Bolts"

BCUG is pleased to announce the presentation by Darrell Gray for Driven Robotics, an amazing group of individuals.

This month we are really going to be thinking outside of the box! The robot's box, that is.

Suppose we said that we are going to meet a robot, one who has already achieved national recognition for its prowess in the arena. We are also going to meet some young people who are well on their way to being the leaders of tomorrow. It should pique your interest and encourage you to attend this month's meeting.

Driven Robotics was formed seven years ago as a robotics club for home schoolers, ages 10 to 18. Because of its popularity, it rapidly became an open program, with students from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with a focus on competitive robotics. Driven Robotics is just one of many teams that participate in events that are run like sports matches, with two robots competing on each side racing to get scoring objects into scoring position. Darrell will talk about how the robots are designed and programmed to perform these tasks by the students, who are encouraged to work as a team at all stages. With that goal in mind, the students plan and program and then build the robots based on their own concepts. The robotic competitions are designed, not to win, but to see what can be accomplished with what is built.

The competition teams have been quite successful and graduates of this program have been accepted at schools like MIT, Harvard Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, WPI, RPI, and Cornell. There is certainly something to be said about the advantages of participating and learning about engineering in this hands-on fashion.

Darrell Gray is an MIT graduate who has been running robotics teams for 10 years. He is currently IT Manager at ISS Solutions and had previously been a software developer, manager and consultant long before his kids turned him into a robotics coach.

Darrell will present an overview of the club and competitive robotics in our local area. He also will explain why every school should offer opportunities for students to participate in these activities. One main reason is that they suddenly discover that they actually LIKE math, physics, and engineering. They realize that they can write computer programs that work, and build machines that do something.

A few local team members will then join in to help explain details of the VEX Robotics Competitions that they participate in and this year's challenge. They expect to offer a demonstration as well as a chance to answer questions.