Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 1, No. 13 - November 28, 2019
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Robotics Team Earns Top Prize
The Inglewood-based South LA Robotics team earned a first prize at the World Education Robotics competition held last month in Rizhou, China. From left, Donald Beatty, Edgar Elias, instructor
Jennifer Lashley, and Erick Arias will travel to Shanghai Dec. 14 and 15 to compete in the world championships in the high-school division. Photo: South LA Robotics
Local Robotics Team Builds New
Friendships at International Meet
By Rob McCarthy
The newest youth sport doesn’t require a
bat, a ball or involve much running. However,
boys and girls on local robotics teams are in
a league of their own.
Robotics is described as a new sport for
young minds. Leagues and teams are popping
up around Southern California, and winning
requires the same dedication to training,
mechanics and teamwork that propels elite
South Bay athletes and championship teams.
A robotics team from the South Bay recently
made a huge impression in China.
Three boys from South LA Robotics,
based in Inglewood, were the lone U.S.
representatives at the World Education Robotics
competition held in the coastal city of
Rizhou. The Chinese translation for Rizhou
is “sunshine,” and the trio of Donald Beatty,
Edgar Elias and Erick Arias shone brightly
during the two days of competition.
The club’s founder and organizer, Jennifer
Lashley, accompanies the boys and
their parents to the competition where the
South LA team won a first prize for their
mechanical and programming skills -- both
of which they learned over the summer and
in weekly meet-ups at the club’s Inglewood
classroom. They faced high school teams
from provinces all over China, South Korea,
the Philippines and the United Kingdom,
according to Lashley.
The sport of robotics resembles NASCAR
because there’s a driver, a crew chief and the
mechanic. The South LA team went into the
China competition knowing the judges would
ask them and their machine to demonstrate
four tasks on the first day. On Day 2, each
team received three surprise tasks and two
hours to program and improve their droids.
They have to make changes to their robots
to increase strength or flexibility to perform it
and then they create the coding for the robot
to cooperate, explains Lashley, who started
the South Bay club last summer because
robotics is a practical way to apply STEM
skills taught in schools. STEM stands for
science, technology, engineering and math.
”The only way you’re going to get to know
this stuff is to do it every day and apply it,”
said Lashley who ran a STEAM lab for two
years with the Los Angeles Unified School
District. Her club has grown to 30 members,
and includes boys and girls ages 6 to 17.
Robotics clubs have formed at El Segundo,
Inglewood and Hawthorne high schools and
those teams compete in a Southern California
league. The First Tech Challenge leagues, or
FTC, hold four local meets per year. Each
team builds a robot, or bot, that weighs up
to 125 pounds from parts bought or donated
by tech companies that sponsor the league.
The competitions put a high value on design,
building skills, coding and project management.
The entry fee for FTC teams is $300
per season, which is now underway.
El Segundo has two teams in the A1
League, both comprised of students from the
Vistamar School. There are 16 teams from
the South Bay to Ventura County in the A1
Marlborough League, including West High
in Torrance.
Two squads each from Inglewood and
Morningside high schools compete in the B
Division. City Honors College Prep School
in Inglewood is involved this season, and
has two teams in the competitive Compton
League. The league has 18 teams, including
one from the Girls Academic Leadership
Academy in Los Angeles.
Robotics clubs at South Bay high schools
also compete in VEX events, which are held
nationwide. VEX is open to elementary,
middle and high schoolers, and Lennox has
two middle school teams this season facing
off against older students in the Compton
Friday
AM
Showers
57˚/46˚
Saturday
Cloudy
60˚/50˚
Sunday
Mostly
Cloudy
62˚/51˚
See Robotics, page 5
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