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A series of small rubber wheels whizzing together to capture the orange foam ring from the ground was the source of consternation for Jonathan Castillo.

“Duct tape is always the answer,” said Castillo, a sophomore at Clark High School, after several minutes of troubleshooting.

“That’s electrical tape, but yes,” high school science teacher, and one of two robotics advisors, Ted “Mr. Ted” Cochran, countered jovially.

It was a Thursday afternoon in March that the pair worked together with the rest of the robotics team in the school's transformed robotics workshop — outfitted with new work benches, machinery, and supplies. Castillo and his teammates were adjusting the robot’s rubber wheels to be more effective in sweeping up the orange ring. Once captured, two other larger, fast-moving rubber wheels would propel the orange ring upward at an angle, launching it into the “speaker” — an imposingly large repository that the robot will encounter in the arena at the 2024 Las Vegas Regional (FRC).

“Every year, the FRC game is different, so it allows for teams to come up with brand new ideas and bigger and better robots,” said Adi Pahima, a mechanical engineering student at UNLV. “This year, it is all about a ring toss.”

The FRC build season, which runs January through March, gave the Clark High School team three months to master this task under the guidance of two UNLV student mentors — Pahima and Magnus Yuen. The two UNLV students spent that Thursday afternoon jumping from one end of the room to the other, zigzagging among the high schoolers and troubleshooting issues as they arose.

As part of Robotics Mentoring, a unique, two-semester long course, UNLV engineering students learned how to design, manufacture, and build an FRC robot in order to partner with CCSD schools and prepare them for competition. In the fall, UNLV students took part in design exercises in a hands-on lab where they learned about the FRC platform, as well as mentoring and leadership concepts. Then, during the spring semester, the UNLV students connected with local high school teams across the Valley, including Clark High School, Desert Oasis High School, Green Valley High School and West Tech, among others, to bring what they learned to life.

The Course: Robotics Mentoring

Robotics Mentoring is broken down into two classes: technology and training (ME 464/664) in the fall semester, and application (ME 465/665) in the spring semester. 

The fall, hands-on laboratory, trains students on the techniques and processes of designing, fabricating, and testing robots using the FIRST Robotics competition platform. Topics include the design and construction of a drivetrain, programming, computer aided design, electronic control system architecture and mechanism development and testing. 

Students also learn tried-and-true tips on how to make workshop sessions at their mentor schools fruitful and productive. In one laboratory session, Ph.D. student Jonathan Lazatin, who co-runs the course with mechanical engineering professor Brendan O’Toole, advised students to make to-do lists for their respective teams, and set goals for the after-school meetups. 

At the start of the spring semester, students are assigned to mentor teams across Las Vegas during FRC’s official build season — a 12-week period where high school teams design and build their respective robots. Competition season immediately follows, with teams bringing their robots to competition to play an alliance-based game with and against other teams from Nevada and around the country and world. 

Where did the inspiration for this class come from?

UNLV’s partnership with FIRST Robotics started about 20 years ago. At that time, Nevada was one of the last states to get involved with FIRST, and UNLV, with O’Toole at the helm, began developing a partnership with the organization. In the first year, they onboarded three high schools in Southern Nevada and a UNLV graduate student mentored the inaugural teams with the help of a small NASA grant. 

After grant funding ran out, O’Toole helped create the first iteration of today’s robotics mentoring course, which was taught about 10 times until about 2012. 

“The organization recently came back to us to say ‘we’ve been expanding, we’ve got a lot more teams and we’re looking for more mentors,’” O’Toole said. “I thought, if we bring this back, we need to change it, and provide our students with more training before we send them out to mentor our partner high schools.”

In fall 2022, O’Toole resurrected the course in its new format, and enrolled four students in the class. 

Who’s taking the class?

This academic year, O’Toole and Lazatin have optimized the course and word is spreading: 16 students are enrolled and assigned to mentor local schools.

“Professor O’Toole made an announcement in one of my spring classes, telling everyone that this exists and this is a great opportunity, so I joined right away,” Pahima said. “I love robotics, and I love working with students. I can give my experience to the next generation, but also, learn for myself the whole process of designing.”

Tracy John, a visual arts teacher at Desert Oasis High School and an advisor to the robotics team, said she enjoys having mentors like Pahima work with her students because, through the experience, “They get to see their future.”

In addition to the 16 students earning class credit, three mentors from last year’s group returned to help this FRC season. Overall, 19 UNLV engineering students are supporting 21 different FRC teams in Clark and Lincoln counties.

In future cohorts, O’Toole would also like to open the course to education majors to empower them to be prepared to help robotics teams when they become teachers themselves. 

In addition to mentorship, how has the program helped local schools?

The UNLV College of Engineering has supplied materials for manufacturing custom components, and has provided over 800 feet of aluminum tubing to teams. The college has also supplied robotics hardware and provided a support network where teachers, coaches, and mentors can ask questions at any time and get almost instant feedback. 

“It’s really about trying to develop this sustainability ecosystem in Las Vegas, because it’s really hard to run these teams, especially for teachers who might not have the background or experience in robotics,” Lazatin said.

At the start of the build season, UNLV purchased a CNC router capable of machining wood, polycarbonate, and aluminum, which has enabled the college to further support teams through part fabrication. This season alone, the college has made about 50 aluminum and polycarbonate parts that are currently out on robots across the city. The robot created by the Cyber Vipers team out of Desert Oasis High School, for example, has employed about five custom UNLV parts. 

O’Toole said they’re trying to replicate a support structure similar to that of other cities and states, where industry tends to rally around FIRST teams. In Las Vegas, several organizations have stepped up to fill the gap, including the UNLV President’s Office; the Gene Haas Foundation; Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS); the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology (OSIT); and Coast Aluminum. 

“A lot of teams came to the College of Engineering looking for support,” said O’Toole, adding that an additional benefit is having UNLV students talking to high school students about what it takes to become an engineer, and to perhaps inspire them to study engineering or computer science at UNLV one day.

“There are multiple benefits to the class,” he said.

Robot 988, “Annie,” managed to maneuver its way from Clark High School's robotics workshop to the lobby outside where a wooden replica of the “speaker” loomed over passersby. From there, the team successfully directed the robot to launch the orange ring up and through the chute — via code developed over the course of the season — proving the program’s benefits to be clear.

“They get this huge environment of support and guidance, as well as seeing their tangible actions lead to outcomes for their robot,” Lazatin said.