LEHMAN TWP. - It turns out building robots isn't that simple.
Just ask Joe Del Santo and Joe Cirilo, juniors at Wyoming Valley West High School who competed at the Northeast Regional Science Olympiad on Wednesday. The two built a remote-controlled robotic arm from scratch and now faced the daunting challenge of proving it worked.
The objective of this particular competition was to pick up as many pencils, pingpong balls and nails with their robot - in their case, a primarily air-powered apparatus attached with a claw that operated much like a crane - and place them into a plastic cup in a three-minute span. The robot worked fine during warm-ups, and the duo was on track for a strong showing.
But just a minute into the competition, the robot quit working, a frustrating end to more than a month of work.
"That's the thing about Science Olympiad," said Cirilo, who has competed against high school students at the competition every year since he was in sixth grade. "No matter how advanced you are, it's always a new challenge."
More than 1,000 students from 50 middle and high schools participated in the competition at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
The Wyoming Valley had a strong showing: Wyoming Area Middle School, third place; Wilkes-Barre Academy, sixth place; and Dallas Middle School, seventh place. All qualified for the state competition. Wyoming Area Secondary Center placed second and Dallas High School placed sixth in their division, both good enough for a trip to state competition as well.
The competition included 38 events. Many were tests on a variety of scientific topics, such as glaciers, biology and genetics. In others, students had to design contraptions like gliders and a mousetrap-powered car and were graded on its functionality.
Audrey Hiedacavage and Emily Bellanco, juniors at Wyoming Area Secondary Center, blazed through the robotic arm challenge with ease. Several teams before them couldn't even get their robots to work. But Bellanco calmly operated the controls, picking up object after object as Hiedacavage gave her instructions.
"It went better than expected," a smiling Bellanco said afterward.
"We went with a simple design," Hiedacavage added. "If it's simple, it'll go smoothly. If it's complicated, you have to think about controlling it more."
They've both competed in the Olympiad since eighth grade and said they love it. It's also served as a foundation for their career ambitions. Bellanco plans to be a pharmacist, and Hiedacavage wants to work as a dermatologist.
Next to them, students were shooting gliders from rubber bands. Austin Elko and Julia Shandra, seniors at Pittston Area High School, walked away laughing after completing the event. Elko said their glider was more of a diver, but it hardly mattered to them. Their focus was on other events, and they're happy just to be there. After all, it is a day of no class.
Their favorite part of the Olympiad is being with other like-minded students. Elko said science isn't a particularly popular subject at his school.
"Seeing this many kids with an interest in science gives me faith in my generation," Elko said jokingly.
"It shows there are a bunch of other kids who do science stuff," Shandra said.
But Shandra made it clear, she also likes winning.
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