1/25-1/26: Saginaw Career Complex (Saginaw, MI)

Saginaw Career Complex InvenTeam students, teacher Bruce Isotalo and Josh
Originally uploaded by Joshua Schuler.

Project: Robotic field striper















Saginaw is about 30 minutes from Flint, MI and experienced similar economic woes and population flight as its infamous neighbor.

Saginaw Career Complex (SCC) is a technology magnet school for the greater Saginaw area. SCC and the district's traditional schools don't always see eye-to-eye -- the more students SCC attracts to its programs, the more dollars flow from the traditional schools to SCC.

Sophomores, juniors and seniors from the two sections (morning and afternoon) of Mr. Bruce Isotalo's technology class make-up the SCC InvenTeam. With an impressive shop, I was not surprised to learn that the group is also involved with US FIRST Robotics and solar car competitions.

I was able to meet with students from both sections and see their robotic test-bed (see photo below). The test-bed allows the students to experiment with their prospective robot's communication and programming. The team was in the midst of developing a smaller-scale prototype to experiment with line following and programmed courses.

SCC InvenTeam's test bed
Originally uploaded by Joshua Schuler

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The exterior design of the invention is still under consideration. For their Invention Statement, we talked about weather conditions and the number of fields they would want the robot to stripe and at what time of day/night.

The SCC InvenTeam is composed of a diverse group of students and includes several students from underrepresented groups in engineering. Unfortunately, most minority members of the InvenTeam were seniors and not eligible for MITE2S. This finding led me to call Karl Reid (Director of Special Programs, MIT School of Engineering) and inquire about opportunities for such students -- with the exception of programs like MIT's Project Interphase for accepted MIT students, there are few programs focus on the post-high school/pre-college summer.

While I was there I met Julie Walker (SCC's principal) and was interviewed for the school's TV station by Cindy Powell (SCC's PR coordinator/Job Developer). I also learned about an award-winning truck design project students undertook the year before.

Mr. Isotalo has a number of motivational displays to keep students interested in the project, including a photograph I took in the parking lot behind our offices, hinting at another application for their invention (see photo below).

Photo about line-painting in MIT Parking lot
Originally uploaded by Joshua Schuler.

Worth noting:
The Harlem Globetrotters were in Saginaw on January 25th and stayed at the same hotel.
The taxi driver who brought me to SCC shared with me how proud he was of his granddaughter, a student at SCC.