Teen masters gather for a robot rodeo

By Joe Brown

Saturday, March 29, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Hi, Robots: Everyone knows that robots are plotting behind our backs to overthrow humanity. For decades we’ve been warned, in comic books and anime and sci-fi books and movies.

As you read this, the teenage power-nerds of America are busily designing our future android overlords — and winning prizes and scholarships for it.

Proudly, defiantly geeky, this next generation of evil geniuses — and their deceptively ingenuous inventions — invaded the unwitting city of Las Vegas this week, as UNLV’s College of Engineering played host to more than 1,200 high school students participating in the fourth annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.

Like a science fair crossed with a mixed martial arts cage match, the regional competition combines elements of sports with technology as the mathletes and brainiacs put their homemade robots through their paces. Among the 43 teams — from Oregon, Utah and as far away as the Netherlands — are 14 teams fielded from Clark County high schools, a substantial increase over the three Las Vegas teams that showed in 2005. A record 37,000 high schoolers will participate in the year-round international event, which culminates with a championship contest April 17-19 at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

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The humans who build robots for a living are called “roboticists” — a term that used to be used for science fiction ... Most roboticists are using their powers for the forces of good, in order to create the most intelligent, capable tools ever to serve mankind. Roboticists are trying to get your lawn mowed, not sowing the seeds of apocalypse (except for the evil roboticists; they are sowing the seeds of apocalypse).

From “How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion” (2005, Bloomsbury), by robotics expert Daniel H. Wilson.

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Thursday was practice day, when the robotics teams arrived at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, set up and decorated an instant village of pit spaces (pirates and post-apocalypse are popular themes), and tinker with their robots, readying them for trial runs and the two-day competition. Later in the day, the teams attended a Blue Man Group performance and took in the backstage technological complexities of Cirque du Soleil’s “Ka.”

The air in the arena rings and stings with the sound of drills and grinding chains and the smell of solder and grease.

“Team 1669, you must get a human player up to the field, like now,” an announcer commands over the booming PA system.

The floor is a humming hive of concentrated teen brainpower. Clusters of kids (about 60 percent boys and 40 percent girls) huddle, frowning over metal work benches and awkward-looking assemblages.

Nerd regalia is rampant: There are white lab coats and bowling shirts emblazoned with team logos for Flaming Chickens and Devil Duckies. T-shirts for Southeast Career and Technical Academy sport a mechanized, demonic-looking Woody Woodpecker over crossed wrenches. One lanky kid is rocking a cape, superhero style. Shaggy ’70s-style hair predominates, but a menacing lavender-tipped Mohawk shark fin crowns one shaved head. Safety goggles are mandatory on the arena floor, which gives everyone an extra aura of mad scientist anti-glamour.

Connor Brew, 15, from Palo Alto High School in California, is sporting a Viking-style helmet and perhaps the best team T-shirt on the floor. It reads: “Making Humans Obsolete Since 1996.”

“Robot coming through!” announces a pit crew from Atascadero (Calif.) High School, protectively maneuvering “Uncle Bubba” — a teetering, tottering pile of metal, rubber and neon — through the crowd and onto the proving grounds.

There’s a special buzz around the pit area housing the reigning world champions, the High Rollers of Cimarron-Memorial High. Everyone seems to want to check out what to expect from this year’s robot, “Pit Boss II.”

“At first it’s kind of seen as a geeky thing,” Cimarron senior Ryan Wamble, 18, says. “But it becomes cooler when certain people start to catch interest in it. I never really considered myself a geek, but this stuff is just tight. I have fun doing it.” Wamble says he’s psyched that the school’s cheerleaders were supporting his squad with robot-specific chants for the first time during the contests Friday and today.

Robots run in the family for Sarah Trabia, an 18-year-old senior at Clark High School and president of her school’s “Robotics Anonymous” club. Trabia’s team is mentored by her father, UNLV mechanical engineering professor Mohammad Trabia, presumably giving them a competitive edge.

Nearby, the Cybernetic Cougars of Coronado High School huddle and pile their hands on top of their robot, “CNTRL Z.”

“One-two-three, Cougars!” they shout.

“Smart kids in all their glory,” says Brendan O’Toole, an associate professor at UNLV’s College of Engineering, looking on with a proud grin. “Maybe it’s a stereotype, but sometimes really smart students tend to keep to themselves. This gets them doing something where they can work after school and build a group of friends and walk around meeting other people from around the country. It’s a great thing to see. And I don’t think they even realize how prepared they are from doing this event to go to college or whatever they’re going to do. Which makes it even cooler.”

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The root of a robot attack usually lies in a faulty logical conclusion. In movies such as “I, Robot” and “The Matrix,” robots have attacked after judging humankind unworthy of life, after misinterpreting orders and even to protect humans from themselves. Do not be fooled by evil robot logic; learn to outwit those mad metallic fiends.

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The hybrid offspring of tool bench and junk drawer, erector sets, Legos and Tinkertoys, the robots are actually kind of cute — in a skeletal, insectoid kind of way. “Waldo,” Mojave High School’s robot, resembles the black pyramid at Luxor. Many robots sport corporate logos, race car style: Cimarron-Memorial High scored sponsorships from Cirque du Soleil and Albertsons.

After the teams are informed about the specific tasks required in the challenge, they are given an identical parts kit and six weeks to design and build a robot equipped to compete. This year’s game is a race between red and blue teams.

Essentially unmanned vehicles with customized capabilities, “driven” by joystick-wielding students, the robots vroom, rattle and rumble like bumper cars around a cage-enclosed 54-by-27-foot track, attempting to grasp, hoist and fling giant, 8-pound inflated balls.

They also smack into walls, tip over and just plain stop dead in their tracks.

“Do you know where I can find a circular saw?” says a wild-eyed boy on a mission, rushing breathlessly up to UNLV spokesman Tony Allen (who happens to be wearing a tie and a lanyard and thus looks like he knows stuff). After pointing the kid in the right direction, Allen says this has been happening to him all day.

“Some team needed lead solder, stat!, and another one asked if I knew how to fix IR (infrared) boards,” he says, laughing. “One question that kind of scared me a little earlier was ‘Where’s the closest fire extinguisher?’ ”

“Safety is such a big part of FIRST Robotics,” Allen says. “Kids will walk around and look for safety violations — if someone spills water, there will be a kid standing over it. You could try a little theory: If you take your goggles off and walk around, it wouldn’t be ten minutes before someone came up and said, ‘Sir, do you need some goggles?’ ”

So everything seems safe and benign and under control here at the FIRST Robotics Competition. But still the question remains: Are the robots going to take over? Are we humans at risk?

“Not yet,” professor O’Toole says, laughing. “Maybe in another hundred years. I don’t think ‘The Terminator’ is ready to happen yet.”