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Geneva High School's ROBOVIKES "attacks Robotics Team Breakaway Challenge program FIRST

Walking in a secondary school in Geneva "ROBOVIKES team meeting" is like walking into a meeting of the team of teenagers - they are working, chatting, teasing, and laughing. They are excited about what they build, perhaps a bit worried about the upcoming competitions, but also looking forward to something they understand, in their second year as a team, will be a blast.

The ROBOVIKES have a mascot designed by the prepress department label printers, according to the specifications of the team. The ROBOVIKE is clearly a cross between Geneva High School Vikings' mascot and Robocop as he should look at the weekend where he worked in the shop in his basement. In agreement with the Viking theme, Geneva will again appoint their robot after a Norse god / goddess. Freyja robot last year and his team went to the rookie Midwest Regional, advancing to the first is equivalent to the "Elite Eight". This year, the team hopes to do as well or better in this year's game, called Breakaway.

The first program is designed so that children have only six weeks to build their robot from a kit of parts, with instructions not - one of life lessons that are part of that competition "of the mind "- and part of six weeks is a major commitment of time and effort that is clearly understood by everyone. Keyzer Mary, a teacher at Geneva High School, based on his years of coaching experience, as she keeps an eagle eye on the proceedings, occasionally make suggestions to any of the children on what they could work. "She said," This year was a little less stressful because we had already supplies and a group of children [of] last year, the rookie team. But it is still a much slower process than people realize. "Trevor Deem, a veteran second grade last year ROBOVIKES team chimes in" It's slow, but fun. FIRST is a pleasure. "

Senior Foehring David, who is considering a major aerospace engineering at IIT, is a ROBOVIKE rookie, and is involved in the realization of the robot. He said: "It's fun just to come up with different solutions to the challenges." Sophomore Keane Hensley is a team of veterans. He thinks that FIRST is a great program ["which] offers many opportunities for anyone s is interested in any kind of genius. The challenge is very different this year. They did a really good job of making something really new and fresh. "It echoes the sentiment Keyzer Mary, saying that this year," it was easier to go because we've already controls last year. "Freshman Matt Fee thinks that the first is" really fun. Experience different than what we usually do in school. "Matt is a member of the Alpine Club (ski club of Geneva) and the football team the first year. And while the first may be a "competition of the mind," Matt says it's like being on a football team, as everyone is "still work together for a common goal."

In addition to Mary Keyzer, ROBOVIKES coach, the team has two main adult mentors who have given countless hours to helping the team to build the robot - Kevin Keyzer, a ceramic engineer and husband of Mary, and Joe Kane, who is the Head of prepress department to the printing of labels brother Kevin. Is the teacher / mentor for the first team at Lake Zurich High School and Kevin has long thought that the program is remarkable. Joe graduated from high school in Geneva, which has a long-term interest in robot technology, having built robots for both middle school and secondary school science projects. Joe said: "We have a good group of young people. There.