There's no bug in their mission: Glitch 2.0 team spreads STEM through robotics

At Asheville High, a group of students is learning there's more to robots than nuts and bolts. And they are using that knowledge to help others in the community.

The Glitch 2.0 team of 43 students work together over eight weeks in the school’s impressive engineering lab, creating a robot capable of completing complex tasks assigned yearly by FIRST Robotics Competition. During this year’s event, March 3-5 at UNC Asheville, robots will have to move objects into score zones with and without a driver.

Annie Hawes, acting coach of Glitch 2.0 robotics, said FRC tasks high school students with a mission broader than simply creating a robot.

“The mission is much greater,” Hawes said. “They really want kids to volunteer — to do outreach, to tutor, to inspire younger kids to get really interested in STEM,” which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

There are four sub-teams assigned to the students: business and outreach, programming, mechanical and electrical. Sophomore student Lauren Barnett works with outreach.

“COVID kind of made it harder for people to learn the foundations of education,” Barnett said. “Our goal is to make sure that we can help decrease that education gap as much as we can, as well as to try to bring some more people into robotics and STEM, especially with how prevalent that is in society.”

Along with their work tutoring elementary students in disadvantaged communities, Glitch 2.0 has partnered with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Asheville Greenworks and Blue Jeans Go Green.

Sophomore Gabriella Bluestone, pit and safety captain, is charged with the vital job of ensuring that her fellow students follow safety procedures. Bluestone implemented her own "strike system" for preventing and addressing safety infractions.

“As a woman in STEM, it was hard to get a lot of the team to hear my voice,” Bluestone said. “And I was like, ‘Guys, you're not listening to me. I'm going to do something to enforce these rules.’ And that's where the strike system came in. And it's worked ever since.”

Joe Kledis, senior student and captain of operations, attributes some of his confidence in the transition to college to his work with Glitch 2.0.

When he first joined the team, Kledis worked on the electrical sub-team. He plans to major in business and economics after focusing on the business and outreach portion of FIRST's mission.

“Being able to not only find out you like business, but actually being able to get experience understanding how to fundraise, and how to use a spreadsheet, and how to make a budget is a phenomenal head start in life and college,” Kledis said.

Operations tasks include connecting with donors, creating advertisements and branding for the team and even managing the team’s budget of tens of thousands of dollars.

Students meet as often as five days a week; Hawes cited students’ passion as the reason they are willing to immerse themselves in their work.

“There is no kid on this team that their parent is making them do this,” Hawes said. “The kids who think, ‘Oh, I'm gonna pad my resume for college,’ they've dropped out a long time ago, because it's way too much time commitment. So these kids really are hungry for STEM.”

Mentors and UNCA STEM students Scott Lashley, Jacob Broermann and Ben Yaniero provide their technical skills to the Glitch 2.0 team.

The three listed tool and machine training, mechanical and conceptual designs and computer-aided design (CAD) training as some of their many offerings as mentors.

Mentors receive no payment or college credit for their work with the Glitch 2.0 team. All three participated in robotics in high school and hope to provide the same experience to a younger generation.

“It was a huge impact on me, so it just feels like the right thing to do to help other people get the same experience,” Yaniero said.

Bluestone cheerfully attributed their group cohesion and commitment to one another to one more factor. Though she is responsible for enforcing rules and mediating disagreement, she said she has never seen any conflict in the group that they couldn’t work out.

“We’re high schoolers,” Bluestone said, “so at the end of the day, we all just want to have fun.”

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: No bug in their mission: Glitch 2.0 team spreads STEM through robotics