Student Profile: Robots Invade! Luckily Kelli Van Antwerp is There.

Hundreds of robots invaded Chicago last weekend, and junior Television major Kelli Van Antwerp had a front row seat.

Van Antwerp is a volunteer working for the U.S. First Robotics Competition, which held its Midwest regional competition at the UIC Pavillion on Friday, February 27 and Saturday, February 28.  The U.S. First Robotics Competition pairs high school students with large corporate sponsors such as Motorola and General Motors.  The high school students then build large robots that look like lottery machines on wheels.  These robots then competed against other teams’ robots in a basketball-type game.

“The field is about the size of a basketball court and the surface (when combined with the mandatory wheels) has about one eight the friction of earth, so it provides a surface a lot like the moon,” said Van Antwerp.  “And what they  have to do is pick up these really weird looking balls, they’re called orbit balls, and the robots shoot them into these movable goals that are attached to the opposing team’s robots.  Either your robot can score points for you by shooting these balls into these goals or the human player can throw the balls into the goals.”

Van Antwerp’s interest in robotics competitions began when she participated in her high school’s team.

“When I was in high school I was on a team from Rolling Meadows, IL.  We were sponsored by Motorola,” she said.  “I became very involved in my team and I did a lot of work for them, and I ended up making a lot of friends along the way who now mentor teams themselves.  I can’t because I’m not an engineer, but I provide volunteer support.  So every March and April I go to different cities across the country and I help out with this big robotics competition.”

Throughout the next two months, Van Antwerp will travel to competitions in Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, where she will help out with things like team registration.

“It’s really cool to see how high school-ers benefit from it because it’s a completely volunteer-run organization,” said Van Antwerp.  “Everyone’s a volunteer, which is simply amazing.”

Besides volunteering to help with robotics competition, Van Antwerp is also a part of Columbia’s Student Government Association and coaches a competitive cheerleading team.  After graduating, she hopes to become a production manager for a television show, but she still plans to continue volunteering for U.S. First Robotics Competitions well into the foreseeable future.

-Anne Pilon
Magazine Journalism