Volume 1, Issue 34 JANUARY 19, 2024
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Student robotics team readies for competition By Sharon Hallack The Oceana Echo Community Contributor
PERMIT NO 62
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Oceana County #6128 Team M.O.T.O.R. (MOre Than Our Robot) and the only FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition Team in Oceana, recently received its “Robotic Challenge” for this year’s competition. While this is the first “county-wide” robotics team, interest in the sport has slowly gained momentum over the past eight years. It began back in 2016, when Hart formed the first robotics team in the county. In 2019, Pentwater had a team but disbanded when Covid hit. The Hart team was coached by Mark Platt and Mark Saari through 2022, when the team had just six students. Then in 2023, retired engineer Matt Werner of Pentwater, assisted by Nick Rombach, was recruited to coach the eight-member team. The 2024 team includes 14 members (five juniors, five sophomores and four freshmen). Its goal is to have 20 members, and hopefully enough members to help mentor a junior high team, by 2026. Coach mentors, students, families and sponsors are very excited for what the future holds for this young and energetic group. The team, which has been working on skills-building activities since September, officially kicked off the season Jan. 6 when they received this year’s official challenge. “This year teams will need to have their robot pick up and move a foam ring (called a “NOTE”), about the size of a frisbee, and place or shoot it into one of three scor-
The 2023 team at competition pictured above includes, back row from left, Brandon Moul, Abigail Studer, Avery Guikema, Ethan Schaner, Peter Tuinstra and Deegan Symons; in front, from left, Clayton Riley and Gaige Gallop. • Contributed Photo ing locations. Each location is awarded different points based on its difficulty. The alliances are working to score as many rings as possible,” said Werner. “Every season, teams are given a different challenge and spend two months building their robot, competing in March and April. The public is encouraged and welcome to attend any of the team’s competitions. Events are free to attend and have a really fun atmosphere. “The three-day events begin on Thursday evening when teams set up their work pits. Starting on Friday and continuing until about noon on Saturday, teams compete in a total of 80 qualification matches. In these qualification matches, teams are randomly matched to create alliances of three. Matches are two and a half minutes long and include the first 15 seconds where the robot has to perform without player control. In various qualification matches, they will be both allied with and competing against the same teams.
“At the end of qualification, the top-ranking eight teams take turns selecting two other teams to join their alliance. These eight alliances then compete in a playoff round of matches Saturday afternoon. The final two alliances compete in a best-of-three final matchup to crown the weekend’s top alliance. “There’s a strategy behind how quickly you can pick the NOTE up and move it to the goals. We’re trying to make strategic decisions that will make us attractive to other teams as an alliance member. Some teams just build a robot to play defense with. We are planning our strategy and working to do it really well. Becoming an alliance captain would be a real feather in our cap,” Werner said. The team will start their competition season at the FIM (FIRST In Michigan) Muskegon District Event against 39 other teams on March 14–17, 2024. The team’s second competition will be at the FIM East Kentwood District Event March
28–30, 2024. The Michigan State Championship will take place April 4-6 in Saginaw and is set to include 160 teams participating in four concurrent events. The FIRST World Championship will include 320 teams participating in eight concurrent events in Houston, Texas April 17-20, 2024. “Teams collect ranking points at the two district events. Last year, teams needed about 80 ranking points to make it to state. We ranked about in the middle of the state last year. We had a young team with mostly sophomores and some freshmen,” Werner said. The team’s building season is currently underway, with activities taking place at the West Michigan Research Station on Oceana Drive. The research station not only donated the space for team activities but generously provided funds to purchase capital equipment for robot fabrication. “With these new tools and machines, students can move past basic hand tools to state-of-the-art fabrication machines,” Werner said.
The team has also been the recipients of numerous grants, including the Michigan DOE (Department of Education) TechPlan 99h: Robotics competition grant (every team in Michigan receives to cover entry fees), a Community Foundation of Oceana County Youth Advisory Council grant, a Zack Snider Agricultural Memorial Fund grant and the Great Lakes People Fund. Sponsor donors include West Shore ESD, Hart Public Schools, AIS Construction, Great Lakes People Fund, Appletree Automotive, GHSP and Hart Rotary. Program Administrator/ Grant Writer and Capital Implementation Manager for Peterson Farms, Patricia Parsons has been very busy this fall on the back side of all the team’s endeavors. “I am excited to see a program like this offering centralized access to all rural high school students from Oceana County. Centralized accessibility to be able to learn and develop skills that will not only be a benefit to the community and technological-based industry but also can become a vital necessity in the growing technological aspect of our agricultural community and state industry,” she said. “Agriculture is becoming more and more automated. John Deere makes tractors that can run up and down the field without anyone inside them. Farmers are finding out it can be difficult to keep up with all the technology. Parents are encouraging their kids to learn these new technologies so they can keep their farms going in future,” Werner said.
Robotics
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Crystal Valley Dam and construction of tunnel under M-20 on commissioner’s docket By Brendan Samuels The Oceana Echo Community Contributor
HART – Several key issues were discussed and voted on during the Oceana County Board of Commissioners meeting Thursday, Jan. 11. During the Courts and Public Safety Committee meeting, Life EMS Director of North Operations Jeff Stockhill presented a proposed increase to prehospital care and transportation rates for Life EMS. That motion was later approved by the board. Public comment for this committee brought Chris Conroy of Pentwater to the podium. Conroy asked the board to voice support for Michigan House Bill 4729, which provides workman’s compensation to include heart and
respiratory diseases for all first responders. The agenda for the Finance and Administration Committee saw a larger scale of items up for consideration and plenty of public comment to go along with it. Kasi Ostyn of Great Lakes Energy (GLE) kicked off the meeting with an update on the continued expansion of the company’s highspeed internet service, Truestream. Ostyn noted that GLE has completed construction in ar-
eas including Hart, Hesperia, New Era, Shelby, Silver Lake and parts of Walkerville. Though a majority of the county now has access to Truestream, there are still areas of Walkerville and Weare Township that don’t. Ostyn said that through Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grants, GLE is set to complete construction in Pentwater, Hart and Weare Township in 2026. There is currently no timetable for when areas of Walkerville and Colfax Township will have access to Truestream. Next, Professional Engineer James Tiffany provided input on his recent investigations into the infrastructure of the Crystal Valley Dam via Zoom.
Commissioners continued on page 3