Lakeside Students Build Remote-Control Robot
Lakeside High School senior Nick Som has spent the last four months building the perfect maid. It comes cheap, can’t rifle through your drawers and smokes only when something goes terribly wrong.
It hasn’t been named yet, but votes have been cast for “Rosie,” after the Jetsons’ maid.
Som, with the help of teacher Larry Carpenter, built a robot using an electric wheelchair as a base. An array of gadgets are attached, including a broom and electronic readerboards advertising local businesses.
Som, his hands on the remote controls, unveiled the robot Saturday during a varsity basketball game. The robot swept the floors at halftime, wheeling up and down the court with its yellow lights flashing.
“It’s like my child, I guess you could say,” said Som, 18.
The robot is a work in progress, with an on-board computer and mechanical arm waiting to be added on. Carpenter says advances depend on the number and skill level of students who take his advanced robotics class.
“We get it flashy and generate interest and get kids into math and science,” said Carpenter.
Som was the only student able to fit the class into a tight, senior-year schedule. Two students who took the class last year built a metal cage and side panels around the wheelchair.
Spending an hour during school and two hours after school several times a week, Som did most of the wiring work. The electrical system uses basic electrical engineering, said Carpenter, a former electrical engineer who taught physics in a Colombian school and technology courses at Eastern Washington University.
Som and Carpenter have together worked out several more difficult, nagging problems - such as getting power systems designed to be run off a wall socket to use battery power.
“It was a lot of trying stuff and going back, trying stuff and going back,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter has also been creative in finding money for the class. The school district paid for part of the supplies, but more money was needed. Carpenter bought the two reader boards at a bargain price and has sold advertising spots to local businesses.
Som said fall is a good time to get into projects. In the winter and spring, tennis consumes his time. He went to the state tennis tournament last year as part of a doubles team.
The last two summers were spent on the road with a Christian mission group. In 1994, he spent three months in Jamaica and the southeastern United States; last summer, it was Alaska and Canada.
He is also weathering the barrage of college applications, although he is focused on either Regis College in Denver or Seattle University.
“If you asked me what I wanted to do, I couldn’t pick,” said Som.
Psychiatrist speaking tonight
Spokane child psychiatrist Brian Gipstien is giving a lecture on Attention Deficit disorder tonight at Mead’s Meadow Ridge Elementary School, 15601 N. Freya, at 7:30 p.m.
For more information, call Liz Pfiffner at 468-3130.
Winning essayists honored
Essays written by a pair of Lake Spokane Elementary School students took first place in a local VFW writing contest and were entered in the state competition.
Third-grader Hannah Bergman and fifth-grader Jessi Reome wrote essays on “What we can do to increase patriotism in America.” Bergman, Reome and 11 other students who won in an intra-district competition will be honored Sunday at the Deer Park VFW.
Also winning awards were Emily Jannings and Gina Barcellos, Lake Spokane third graders; fourth graders Ryan Walsh of Nine Mile Elementary and Brent Meyers of Lake Spokane; Karissa Hensley and Marie Carbonneau, Lake Spokane fifth-graders; and Nine Mile Falls Middle School sixth-graders Lance Fairbanks, Kyle Jannings and Lindsey Gebalski.
Music at Ridgeview
The Spokane Symphany brass ensemble will visit Ridgeview Elementary School today at 9:30 a.m. as part of its educational program. The symphony will play Disney songs among others. Call Leslie Hartman at Ridgeview at 353-5272 for more information.
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