“I can’t hear you, I said, are you all ready to start!,” a DJ yelled as theme songs from the Star Wars franchise blared from the speakers.
Rod Davis was the DJ for the El Camino College Robotics Exhibition event and gave energetic and humorous commentary throughout.
In addition to music from Star Wars, Davis played the theme song from Star Trek and electronic techno music.
The music was fitting because of the presence of R2D2 from Star Wars at the event.
Robotics teams from El Camino College and North Torrance High School publicly demonstrated their robot creations at the event hosted by the Robotics Club inside the Industry and Technology Education Center on Wednesday, Dec 6.
Student-created robots were displayed and shown in action for audience members to vote on.
Different groups including the El Camino Robotics Club, El Camino Society of Women Engineers, North Torrance Robotics Club and North Torrance Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) all had representatives in attendance to demonstrate their robotic entries.
One of the members of the El Camino Robotics Club, eager to show off his robot was Patrick Perez, 21. Perez had just joined the club two weeks earlier.
“I’m really excited about this robot show and getting to show the mechanical hand vehicle I helped develop,” Perez said.
The mechanical hand is a flat, remote-controlled vehicle designed to move around objects.
“Green Goblin” and “A Minor,” two robots created by North Torrance High School’s Robotics Club were showcased. The robots had a catapult feature to launch objects.
One of the North Torrance students attending was junior Chelsea Salazar.
“I got interested in robotics in a lead-the-way program in junior high because I love building and creating,” Salazar said.
Members of the North Torrance JROTC program attended the exhibition with their robot, “Power Bot.”
“The Power Bot serves as a transporting device to pick up objects like a bulldozer and launch objects with its catapult,” North Torrance freshman Sean Kim, 14, said. “Our robot will later be featured in competitions with robots from other high schools.”
The North Torrance students were given a guided tour of the Industry Technology Education Center with a complimentary lunch before the event started. They all also received El Camino Robotics Club T-shirts.
The last robot in the competition was the “WAV-2U” robot designed by the Society of Women Engineers. It was a robot with a hand attached to it to wave at people.
The audience in attendance for the exhibition voted for the best prototype robot and the best poster presentation.
Davis went to each group and let the robot creators speak and demonstrate what their robots can do. After all the demonstrations, the audience voted on each category.
After all the votes were tallied, the Society of Women Engineers “WAV-2U” robot was voted the best prototype and North Torrance JROTC won the best poster for the “Power Bot.”
“Everyone in our JROTC team contributed to each part of our Power Bot and even with our fewer resources we made something we are proud of,” Kim said.
