At the heart of the battlefield lies a pile of tennis balls, surrounded on all sides by robots waiting to strike. Around them, school children from across the Valley look on, waiting for the call to arms when their mechanical progenies will charge forth to do battle.

It sounds like science fiction, but this was a common scene at the West Hills College Robotics Competition on Saturday.

"I have a thing for technology, so I thought building robots would be pretty cool," said 12-year-old Brandon Smith. "I really like computers and electronics and every little technology thing. I like it all so bad!"

For Smith, this was a chance to embrace the technology that he has been a fan of since early childhood.

For event coordinator David Castillo, director of Westside Institute of Technology, this was an opportunity to help students develop a love of engineering at an early age.

"There is a real lack of students going into the engineering field," Castillo said. "This has been a downward trend for 15 to 20 years because there just isn't much interest there. We chose a robotics program because we felt it would interest people young and old and open the door to this field."

More than120 students covering an area from Hanford to Mendota were given a simple task: build a robot that can maneuver a number of tennis balls from a level surface to a nearby elevated trough, while at the same time fending off other robots with the same goal.

"This brings up logical thinking and complex problem solving," Castillo said. "You have to incorporate additional motors and make them work simultaneously to move and perform basic lifting at the same time. This requires higher levels of thinking, but once you get these kids started on that, then there is no slowing them down."

A wide variety of robots were on display at the event, from four-wheeled vehicles with tractor plows mounted on the front to mobile mechanical arms, which could grab the ball and dunk it into the goal.

The team from Coalinga Middle School built their robot with dual tank treads on the front, which could convey the tennis ball up the robot's angled frame before dropping it into the trough.

"It took us about a month to build it," said team member Jacob Motta, 13. "The idea was that if you ram into the ball, it would be sucked right up."

The team from Clovis Unified's Center for Advanced Research and Technology based the initial design of their robot on a scaled down version of an electronic tank they had already built as part of their robotics and electronics course.

"It had a turret, it drove around and could shoot soft little BB pellets," Instructor Michael May said. "This one is quite a bit smaller."

Tom Garcia, one of three San Joaquin Elementary School instructors at the event, said that a program like this is a chance to make education relevant and fun for students.

"If what we are teaching to a student isn't relevant, then it is not going to make sense to them to have to learn it," Garcia said. "With a robotics program, you can teach them about basic physics, mathematics and working cooperatively.

"More importantly, you can teach them that there are careers out there that incorporate part of the fun of making robots and, hopefully, that will drive them towards a need to learn how to do math and physics."

The Robotics Competition began more than a month ago, when teachers were brought in for a two-day training session at the college. Each potential team was given a copy of the VEX Robotics Design System, a commercially available kit that includes rudimentary parts and instructions for building a basic robot.

"The VEX system is nice because it is both complex and reasonably priced," event coordinator Castillo said. "Schools can continue to use it without a big expense."

Each team began their training by designing a Square Bot, which is described by event organizers as "one of the most basic robots you can build." The Bot includes two motors and a programming chip that allows the device to be remote controlled for basic movement.

By starting off small, students are then allowed to brainstorm additional ideas and discover different ways of approaching technical challenges.

"If I had enough robots and equipment, I would teach my entire eighth-grade science curriculum through robotics," Garcia said. "You would need to be a little creative, but the applications here are not a great stretch. We've already discussed doing our own competition in our district at Golden Plains Unified, because we've had such a great time here."

With the success of the program, West Hills College officials are discussing a future expansion, where additional competitions will be held in nearby cities and counties. A nine-week basic robotics course will also be held in the spring to introduce high school students to more sophisticated systems and how they tie into local industries in the Kings County area.

"This will give students another avenue that ties directly into vocational jobs," Castillo said. "Really, the programming done in these toy robots can be transferred to local industries. The code they use is almost identical."

And while only Central High School East's team, the Autobots, left victorious at the end of the day, instructor Garcia said that there were valuable things to be learned from this experience.

"Not only was this fun for the students, but it also encouraged them to be cooperative," Garcia said. "Students that typically work by themselves become big team players, giving compliments to each other for good ideas and improving on one another's original concepts.

"I feel very lucky to have been offered this and the students are really happy to be here."

The reporter can be reached at 582-0471, ext. 3048.

(Nov. 18, 2007)