Beach Cities Robotics Vies for World Championship

Two years after taking the world championship in a highly competitive high school robotics competition, Beach Cities Robotics has come roaring back with a secret weapon: McTwist.

McTwist is designed to kick a ball and make goals guided by remote-control.

Sebastian Miller-Hack, a junior at Redondo Union and BCR team member, describes McTwist and its companion robots as "rolling coffee table"-shaped objects that "hum and make a loud noise when they kick."

McTwist will be strutting its stuff at the FIRST Robotic World Championship from April 15-17 in Atlanta. 

The FIRST Robotics World Championship is an annual engineering tournament that challenges students and their mentors to build robots in six weeks using a standard Kit of Parts  and a set of rules. 

The kits and rules differ every year, and teams enter their robots in a competitive game environment designed by Dean Kamen, who is founder of FIRST, Dr. Woodie Flowers, FIRST National Advisor and co-founder of FRC, as well as a committee of engineers and other professionals.  

The beach team qualified for the international contest after winning the San Diego Regional Competition in March.

"We would love to win again like we did in San Diego, but we're really here to have fun,"  team member Andrew Keisic said during another interim competition leading up to the Atlanta games. "We've already won, we're here and these guys are working their tails off. "

Beach Cities Robotics members meet for six hours every Sunday at Redondo Union High School. They participate in competitions and workshops year-round to hone their skills and knowledge in robotics under the supervision and guidance of 11 mentors.

Members visit elementary and middle schools to get students there interested in science and technology and to recruit them for LEGO League teams for kids ages 9 to 14. 

"Anyone can join from any school," said Alek Munoz of Redondo Union High School. "We invite everyone to visit our robotics lab on Sundays."

Participants in the Atlanta event include 1,800 teams made up of nearly 480,000 students from 11 countries. The emphasis is on robotic performance. Teams compete in a game called Breakaway— similar to soccer and basketball —  by shooting soccer balls into a goal to get the highest score.

"When our robot grabs a ball, there's a heads-up light that comes on to let us know we have a ball," Keisic said. "It's one of the innovations that we did in our design to help make it easier for our drivers."

Each alliance team (a group of three robots) must win two out of three games in the quarterfinal, the semifinal and the final matches before a win is called.

Munoz, who is in his second year with the team, enjoys not just competing, but also meeting and talking to students from other states.

"I'm looking forward to going to Atlanta," he told Patch. "I do this because it's really fun and most of my friends are here. I've learned a lot, and I'm still learning. I think making a robot is fun because there are lots of different ways to design it."

David Ansari, an employee of Northrop Grumman and a mentor to the team, said he likes the camaraderie among all the students, and how the team members support one another.

"I've dealt with them so much throughout the year….  I think we've grown on each other," he said. 

Ansari said that some of the members will be graduating this year, and he will be sad to see them leave. "I wish them the best," he said. "I know they will all do well in college. Hopefully some of them will return as mentors."