NWN reporter Zubair Muhammad sat down with Engineer Club sponsors Brent Garner and Tim Sullivan, for an Q&A interview to gain more information on the club.
NWN: Could you start off telling us a little bit about engineering club?
Garner: The engineering club started about eight or nine years ago and it has since evolved from a club where we use to participate in a thing called “The Rube Goldberg competition,”which was held down at Navy Pier where the students had to go through so many different types of energy transitions to make like a turn on light switch, they would have to start off with a ball rolling and hitting a switch, a car that would ride along, that kind of thing. It evolved as Niles North went into robotics three years ago, we knew that was the direction we had to head. Last year was our first year of doing full robotics and given the fact we didn’t know what to expect we did alright with it. A lot of the credit also goes to Mr. Barton down at Niles North, because he spent a lot of time coaching us, and Mr.Sullivan and I developed the club.
NWN: What’s so special about this years engineering club? Isn’t it usually the same every year?
Sullivan: It’s actually the great thing about engineering club is that it’s different every year. The overall theme maybe the same, but like we’re working with VEX robotics, but that’s literally where the similarities start and end. Teams usually at the end decide that they maybe go their separate ways or form new teams the following year and the challenge is usually different each year. Last year we did a competition called Skyrise and this year we’re doing a competition called “Nothing but Net.”
Garner: VEX changes the nature of the competition every year like Mrs.Sullivan said, last year was Skyrise, this year is “Nothing but Net” and next year we have no idea what their going to do. So what the students have to do to be able to build an effective robot changes from year to year and that’s part of the challenge.
Sullivan: The robot has to be completely different, the programming has to be completely different.
NWN: Besides learning how to put together a robot, what else can be offered or taught to members?
Sullivan: Teamwork, that’s what I think is the number one thing that’s taught in all of this. There are the concrete things about this where you can look at it and say, “Yeah, okay, there’s teamwork, how to build a robot and it was effective and they learned how to program this robot in an effective way,” but then there’s also everything that goes on behind the scenes in a group that could function well and go through the design process and end up with an actual working robot at the end of the day. That’s incredibly important.
NWN: Do you think there are any life skills a student can learn from the club?
Garner: Oh definitely! I mean building a robot is a major challenge, it’s a trial-1 error thing. There are times you just have a great idea and you think it’s gonna work and you implement it and you find it doesn’t work and you were near as well as you thought, so you need to go either back to the drawing board or use the engineering process to go through and figure out what went wrong and how you can you correct it. You also have to work as a team together to come up with a consensus on which way you want to go, how you want to solve the problem.
NWN: What’s the number one reason you would recommend engineering club to a student whether they’re interested in joining or not?
Sullivan: I would say for the dynamic personalities and characteristics that make you successful as a team member in your group. Some people just come to this club and just say, “Oh you’re just building a robot”; it’s like “I don’t want to be building a robot.” There is the teamwork aspect of it, which makes it unique and I think the style of competition on how it’s set up, how you need to arrange alliances and get along with other teams, as well there’s a huge deal of sportsmanship that goes into this competition that I really think is unique and can bring students of any sort of background together.
Garner: There’s also the discipline part to it, because every team needs to have a notebook that they keep record of how they built the robot, and the ideas that went into it on how they need to present a competition, that’s part of their overall score. They learn a lot of different areas of engineering. Also like Mr.Sullivan said it’s about learning to get along with other people and come to your senses. We had two different teams last year that made an alliance and ended up getting to nationals together!
NWN: When does engineering club usually meet and for how long?
Sullivan: We usually meet Tuesdays and Thursday mornings before school and Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school. The morning meetings usually start at 7:15 right up until the bell rings and after school we usually stick around till 6:00.
NWN: Is it too late for a student to become a member of the club even though the first meeting was last week?
Sullivan: Nope. It’s better if they can get in here sooner, but if they still want to join we’re still welcome. There’s usually a team or two that has a spot available and their looking to pick someone up and see what they have to offer to the team.
NWN: Where does the club meet up?
Garner: The engineering lab in room 1520 here at Niles West.
NWN: Before we wrap things up, is their any last piece of information or student opportunities any of you two would like to include?
Garner: I think we covered it in most of the interview, but as Mr. Sullivan said, we’re always welcoming new students and it’s a really good opportunity for students to learn engineering and the problem solving process and it looks good on a college application!
Sullivan: Especially if you can get into some of the big tournaments and win some of those tournaments, I believe you get offered a scholarship when you do well there, and besides earning a scholarship it’s tons of fun!
