Lenape rules in Battlebots tourney
In a spark-flying melee of clashing steel and aluminum, a robot named Ila, the Lenape Indian word for warrior, reigned supreme.
The parallelogram-shaped machine, built by students from Lenape Technical School in Manor Township, went undefeated in a four-round, eight-team regional competition Saturday with five other schools at BattleBots IQ -- The Smart Sport, held at Westmoreland Mall, Hempfield.
"They've done well, they found their stride and found their ace driver," Lenape Tech adviser Steven Williams said before The Lenape Warriors defeated Flippin' Spatula, a scrappy steel competitor made by students from Central Westmoreland Career & Technology Center AM, in the final round.
Ila's driver was 17-year-old Nick Danish, a junior from the Freeport Area. The team included juniors Shawn Boyer, 17, of Elderton; Kyle Cacurak, 16, and Seth Hawk, 18, of the Ford City area; and Dan Brown, 17, of the Apollo area.
The event, sponsored by the National Tooling and Machining Association, Pittsburgh chapter, was the first held in Southwestern Pennsylvania. BattleBots IQ began in 2001 when school students became interested in making the machines after watching the cable television show "BattleBots."
"Kids always watched wrestling and wanted to try moves on their siblings. Kids began watching 'BattleBots' and started wanting to try building robots," said Nola Garcia, BattleBots IQ chief operating officer.
Show creators compiled a Robotics curriculum, partially based on that of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's mechanical engineering program, along with teacher training and a national competition. This year, students from 26 states competed in the recent national championship held in Miami and won by students at Bloomsburg Area High School in Columbia County.
Under the bright skylight of the mall's center circle Saturday, dozens watched Ila, Flippin' Spatula and four other gleaming metal gladiators, the results of months of preparation by students, faculty and 80 volunteers in the realms of math, science, engineering and even public speaking, Garcia said.
"What happens in the arena is gravy," Garcia told about 60 students before the competition. "What's important is that you're working to find on-the-spot solutions and thinking like you would in the real world, and that's what this is all about."
An award for sportsmanship went to the Lenape Tech team, said Terri Campbell, a local BattleBots competition committee official. King of the Ring went to Bloomsburg's Maximum Impact, which destroyed most of the robots it faced in exhibition matches.
The first-place Lenape Tech team received a trophy, and each member received ribbons, medals, and a $250 book scholarship usable at Westmoreland County Community College, Campbell said.
