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There was a noticeable charge in the air as teams from around the world gathered recently at the Wolstein Center for the 27th annual Competition Buckeye Regional.

Much of that energy came from a local team known as “Lady Voltage”, sponsored by Sherwin-Williams. 

Led by team leaders Chelsey Kohn, Jordan Seigler and Gloria Campos, the spirited Cleveland robotics team included close to 20 students representing several local Cleveland Metropolitan School District schools.

“As Cleveland’s team, this is our home regional tournament – the Buckeye Regional – a lot of our teams actually travel out-of-state into Dayton and other competitions, but this regional has over 50 teams at the Wolstein Center and there’s always international teams as well,” said Kohn. “We will get teams from Mexico, Israel, China so it’s a really cool way for students to meet teams from all around the world.”

This competition stands apart from traditional high school robotics events: the robot the girls built is large enough for a person to ride — and it doesn’t come from a pre-made kit. That challenge pushed the team to design every detail from the ground up, problem-solve at every step and ultimately bring their machine to life to compete at the highest level.

“They announce a challenge (for the competition) and you can use any materials and you can build the robot in any way possible to essentially meet the challenge and score points,” Kohn said.

“This is not a competition where you compete alone, you have alliances, so that makes it drastically different for culture and for also how your robot operates,” she said. “Because your robot is competing on a randomized team per match, so one match you’re competing with somebody, the next you’re competing against somebody, but it creates this entire culture that we call gracious professionalism; essentially, you’re incentivized to help other teams so that everybody rises and then the robots are just much better.”

One aspect that makes the FIRST Robotics Competition unique is that it is entirely student-run from start to finish.

“Teams can have up to 30 students, and it is super-organized,” Kohn said. “You’re on a sub-team, and the sub-teams have captains, which includes an overall team captain.”

The competition also gives students the opportunity to dive into every corner of the industry. Sub-teams drive that experience: a mechanical team cuts aluminum, designs the intake system for throwing balls and determines what wheels to use on the chassis, while an electrical team works closely with the programming team to build the robot’s entire electrical board — connecting the motors and bringing the machine to life.

But wait, there’s more!

A programming team uses Java software to develop autonomous mode and drive movement, powering the robot’s actions and scoring. Meanwhile, a business team manages the entire design process and project planning, conducts outreach to sponsors and funders and oversees the budget, marketing materials and website — bringing both strategy and sustainability to the team’s success.

“I think it’s very special to have an all-girls team, we are only the third all-girls team in Ohio and we are the first to serve public school students in Northeast Ohio ever,” said Kohn. “That’s a really big deal because some of our girls like to have that affinity space, that’s easy when you’re on a co-ed team, naturally, the boys kind of jump in and want to do things and some of our girls like the opportunity to be able to be in an empowering space where they are the team captains leading every component of the competition.”

The competition also received support from Miroslav Bogdanovski, a physics lab and electronics technician who works in both the Physics and Engineering departments. He volunteered his time by machining parts for the robots and offering encouragement to the competing students.

“I like to help students along with inspiring and mentoring them on which direction to go,” he said. “Engineering students came to me, and I was able to help them; I just like helping students and supporting them.”

AN IMPORTANT COLLABORATION PARTNER

A downtown Cleveland mainstay, Sherwin-Williams has played an integral role as part of the Lady Voltage team.

As a key sponsor, the company provides nearly 20 mentors—industry professionals in engineering, software development and research —who contribute more than 100 hours of volunteer time throughout the season.

“They are a really committed set of mentors and often they continue working with the girls once they – many of them will ultimately come to �鶹��Ƶ��� – and will be sought out to be mentors for those Sherwin-Williams mentors when they are studying mechanical engineering or whatever else they are studying later,” said Kohn. 

“This effort represents a significant commitment from industry partners who invest in identifying talent early across all six �鶹��Ƶ��� teams. They provide both mentorship and sponsorship, engaging with students before they enroll at �鶹��Ƶ���. These partners maintain those relationships throughout the students’ time at the university, continuing to mentor them and ultimately recruiting many into their organizations.”

Not only do the girls gain unprecedented, hands-on experience at the event, but they’re also set up for success as they begin considering college and what comes next.

“Often times, when students go to apply for college internships and hiring managers see ‘FIRST’ on the resume, they will bump them up to the top immediately and automatically without further review just because they did FIRST,” said Kohn. “It won’t necessarily mean they get it, but it gets them in the door and is a stamp of approval in the engineering and STEM community and is well-recognized.”