Students participate in robotics competition

“Missed Opportunity” didn’t miss a beat as it flawlessly traversed the Belle Fourche Middle School team’s robotics course near 6 Shaft on the 4850 Level of Sanford Lab. A wild cheer went up from the onlookers underground as the robot successfully executed its third consecutive program. On the surface, the lone team member was a bit more subdued.

Teddy Long, a sixth grader at Belle Fourche who was mentored by Allysa Burggraff, a special education major at Black Hills State University (BHSU), watched nervously as his robot went through its paces, then proudly accepted his trophy as the competition came to a close.

“He was awfully happy,” said Andrew Johnson, a sixth-grade science teacher at Belle Fourche Middle School. “My students worked really hard all season long and it was great to see their hard work pay off. The robots performed as we thought they would. I’m so proud of the work my students did and of the advanced coding techniques they achieved—some are even beyond me. It’s pretty amazing.”

This year marks the third time middle school students from Belle Fourche and Spearfish have competed in the Black Hills State University Underground Robotics Competition at Sanford Lab. Twenty-four middle school students watched—and gave instructions—via a live video stream from the surface as the BHSU mentors ran the robots through their paces.

“Set it back just a little back.”

“Move it to the right.”

“Move a little to the left.”

“Initiate program two.”

Each group of two middle school students worked with one BHSU mentor, meeting periodically since October to build and program robots that could complete the actions required to earn points in the competition. Robots were programmed to travel over ramps, drive through tunnels and deliver objects across the course.

“The competition works as middle school outreach,” said Dr. Brianna Mount, assistant professor of physics and director of the BHSU Underground Campus. “There’s been research, especially with young girls, that students either choose science or don’t choose science as a career in middle school. That’s why we focus on that age group, trying to nudge them towards a career in science.”

The students toured the facility at surface-level and participated in science-based, problem-solving activities throughout the day. BHSU students toured both the Ross and Davis Campuses underground, where they learned about leading-edge research projects.

This is the second year Hannah Owens, a chemistry major from Spearfish, has been involved in the project. “One big thing I noticed is that this year there were a lot more girls involved, which I thought was really great,” Owens says. “I think it’s an awesome experience for the kids to learn more about what’s going on at Sanford Lab.”

Kerry Tarrant, a psychology and mathematics major from Rapid City, said the middle school students took charge of their project. “Our goal as mentors is to help them critically think and work through their big ideas,” Tarrant says. “They construct and program the robot. They put the robot through tests to see how it preforms on the obstacle course. It’s amazing to see middle school students develop a plan and do a lot of this stuff on their own.”

Connor Curran, a seventh-grade student from Belle Fourche Middle School, excitedly discussed the work he and his partner Caden Thomsen had done on their robot named Darth Vader.

“We have a gyro sensor that allows it to go straight,” Caden explained. “We have motors that make it turn, and then we have the low-friction wheel in the back, which basically makes it so that it doesn’t catch on stuff when it turns. We also have a thing to drop the rock, which is called the payload.”

However, that wasn’t enough for the win. In the end, Teddy’s robot, Missed Opportunity, took the win as it repeatedly navigated the track and dumped its payload—a plastic rock. 

"Our strategy was to deliver the payload as many times as we could because we got points for going over the ramp, delivering the payload, and making it back to base at the end," Burggraff said. "During our last practice we timed the robot at around 20 seconds."

Missed Opportunity earned 245 points; the second-place robot had 140 points.

Mount said she hopes to expand the competition next year.

“We’re hearing that more schools and students would like to be participate in this competition,” she said. “I hope we can find a way to accommodate them.”

Erin Broberg is a student at Black Hills State University working in the Public Relations Office.