By James Sanna, Southwest Minneapolis Patch

The machine clacked and hummed as it skittered back and forth across the floor, searching for inflatable circles, triangles to hang on a rack at one end of the small arena. Its wedge-like shape, bright orange and shiny metal frame, and plastic wheels suggested a prototype Mars rover, rather than something built by a gang of high school students.

Coming upon one of its targets, the angular beast reached out with a long, articulated appendage, snapping at the balloon with jaws mounted on it’s end like some space-faring aluminum plesiosaur. Grasping the shape and raising it high, the robot surged forward, trying to pin the re-purposed beach toy to a wall of horizontal pegs. Missing its first attempt, it backed up and readied for another charge, but it was too late: a buzzer sounded, announcing the round was up, and it was time to move on to a different challenge.

The robot may not have been able to put the last inflatable toy on the rack in time, but the fact that it was able to at all without any mechanical or software glitches is impressive. Its creators in Washbrun High School’s robotics club, the Millerbots, knocked the machine together in less than five months after receiving a kit containing its basic parts.

Built for a national robotics competition sponsored by FIRST, a non-profit founded by Segaway inventor Dean Kamen, the robot helped its creators place well in the first, regional round, according to Gabe Cole-Brant, one of the Millerbots manning the controls at Thursday’s State Fair demonstration.

“No-one expected us, the seventh-place alliance (each team is randomly paired with two others to operate with during the tournament) to beat the first place alliance at all,” said Cole-Brant.

Preparing for the competition, said Cole-Brant’s teammates Tyler Meister and Serena Sellars, involved long hours after school and on Saturdays researching, building, and testing.

Students even have to search out sponsorships from local corporations—just like a start-up firm would have to do, coach and physics teacher Peter Grul pointed out—to pay for specialty equipment that can give their creation a special edge.

“Build time is very stressful,” said Meister.

“You don’t have time to have the design in place before you have to start cutting aluminum,” added Grul.

In 2008, Malcolm Gladwell released a book calledOutliers. The book examines the factors of success, looking at the stories of everyone from Bill Gates to The Beatles. Mike Meyer is a soon to be sophomore at Washburn and an aspiring video producer. The book is one of his favorites.

Outliers might not be the top pick of your average 15-year-old. But Meyer’s not your average 15-year-old. He opts for documentaries over summer blockbusters and mentorship programs over sleeping until noon. He can’t yet legally drive, but that’s not stopping him from pursuing video gigs or trying to figure out what it will take to be the CEO of a company someday.

Meyer first started playing around with videography when he was 12, filming his friends doing “crazy stunt things.” More recently, he made a video for the Washburn lacrosse team, earned an honorable mention nod for a video in a nationwide CSPAN contest, and has been working with local company Urban World Management on projects including a documentary about families who have been impacted by incarceration.

Roberta Ryan of Urban World Management looks past Meyer’s age and at his talent.

“Mike has incredible insight and is able to capture and bring emotion with mostly every project he creates,” Ryan said.

A chance meeting with entrepreneur and executive producer Steve Gatena at a Lamborghini dealership in Los Angeles last summer (Gatena was filming a commercial; Meyer was on vacation and filming for fun) lead to a brief online internship and inspired Meyer to get more serious about making videos.

Meyer said Gatena taught him that a video should do four things: engage, entertain, inform and motivate–and that a lot of people miss motivation. Motivation is one thing, however, no one needs to remind Meyer about.

“I’ve been told countless times I need to relax and chill and enjoy my high school experience, but I really enjoy where I’m at right now and where I’m going,” Meyer said.

Meyer’s first paying gig in video production was last summer for Lake Superior Helicopters. On a visit with his dad, he brought his video camera to play around with. The next thing he knew, he was asked to film a video for the company.

Meyer’s father, Kurt Meyer, said his son has always been focused, never holding back when he discovered an interest. And though Mike’s goals may be lofty, his father doesn’t see them as out of reach.

“I don’t doubt a bit that he’ll do it all–not a bit,” Kurt Meyer said.

With no shortage of drive or confidence, Meyer’s biggest challenge is that, at 15, he’s not legally able to do some of the things it takes to run a business.

“Age is probably my biggest limitation,” Meyer said. “Not being 16 has its own limits, and then not being 18, not being 21.”

For the future, once he can drive a car by himself, vote, and buy a beer, Meyer said he may continue to pursue video production, stating an interest in becoming CEO of a video production company. Or, he said, maybe he’ll write a book. Maybe he’ll make a movie.

Sara Etzel, Meyer’s Project Lead the Way engineering teacher for his Introduction to Engineering Design class this past school year and a coach on his robotics team doesn’t doubt he’ll do something on that level.

“What he’s going to do in the future? World, watch out,” Etzel said. “He’s going to be a dynamic individual.”

In many ways, he already is. Driven by big dreams and the passion to pursue them, Meyer keeps the big picture in focus and tries to grow each day.

“Every day, with everyone I encounter, I try to learn something,” Meyer said.

Written by Ashlee Briggs Horton – July 2, 2011 – soutwestminneapolis.patch.com

There were 14 different scholarships awarded.  Some are one-time awards while others are renewable for up to four years.

The scholarships include:

• Concord Foundation Scholarship
• Fairview-Southdale Hospital Scholarship
• Knelman Scholarship
• Kopp Family Foundation Recognition Scholarship
• Lillian J. Lindsten Scholarship
• Minneapolis Public Schools Endowed Scholarship
• Minneapolis Association of Administrators and Consultants Scholarship
• Pearson Education Scholarship
• Regis Scholarship
• Richard R. Green Scholarship
• Ross and Doris Taylor Scholarship
• WHS Class of 1956 Scholarship
• WHS Class of 1959 Scholarship and the
• Washburn High School Foundation Scholarship

The recipients of these scholarships included:  Liban Ashkir, Stephen Carter, Yasir Hassan, Crystal Herrera, Tibyus Hill, Hailey Hollenbeck, Lewis Jones, Pa Nhia Khang, Peyton Lauber, Karen Opdahl, Jenny Ortiz, Stephanie Ortiz, Xuan Pham, Rebekah Polland, Max Pratt, Crystal Reyes, Dominic Rigert, Caleb Shepherd, Amanda Stone, Aleksandar Straumann, Shanice Sullivan, Guillermo Turcios, and Mai Vang.

And Congratulations go to Max Pratt who was selected as the recipient of the Washburn High School Foundation’s four-year renewable scholarship.  Max will be attending Missouri State University where he will not only embark on a challenging academic career, but he will also be a member of the Bears’ men’s swimming team.

Students from Washburn High School will compete at the international FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Championship in St. Louis, MO from April 27-30. The event will bring together 352 qualifying teams made up of 8,800 high school students from Australia, Canada, Israel, Mexico and the United States.

The Washburn Millerbots won the Minnesota Northstar Regional Robotics Competition to advance to the national competition.  This marks the Millerbots’ third regional win in the past four years.  The Millerbots created unique business partnerships in the community and forged a connection with the Minnesota High Tech Association.  Students on the robotics team were also engaged in an e-mentoring program with Target Corporation to develop leadership skills and awareness of IT careers.

The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) stages short games played by robots that are designed and built in six weeks from a common set of parts by a team of high-school-aged young people and a handful of engineer-mentors. The students program and remotely control the robots in competition rounds. Judges evaluate teams and present awards for design, technology, sportsmanship and commitment to FIRST. The competition season begins in early January and continues through April.

In the 2011 competition, LOGO MOTION, two alliances of three teams will compete on a 27-by-54-foot field with poles, attempting to earn points by hanging as many triangle, circle and square logo pieces as possible. Bonus points will be earned for each robot that can hang and assemble logo pieces to form the FIRST logo. Robots can also deploy Mini-Bots to climb vertical poles for a chance to earn additional points.

Click here for live streaming video of the competition. The competition begins at 1:00 pm (CDT) and will conclude on Saturday.  The Millerbots will be on the Archimedes field.  Washburn’s robot is bright orange and team number is 2549.

Congratulations to all members of the team and to their coaches Sara Etzel and Peter Grul who will be travelling with the team.  The 2011 Travelling Millerbots are:  Ethan Oscarson, Tyler Meister, Serena Sellars, Maddy Kersten, Matt Kinney, Steve Kinney, Mike Meyer, Gabe Cole-Brant, Georgeann Byrd, Nick Raap, and Conrad Etzel.

From Amy Cram Helwich (Executive Director, MN Urban Debate League)

On Sunday night we returned from the NAUDL (National Urban Debate League) national tournament in New York City, which brings the top two teams from 20 leagues from across the country for an incredibly competitive national tournament. A huge thank you to their coaches, Travis Neal, who did a fantastic job coaching them at the tournament, and to Lisa Jensen for her continual drive and unending support of the kids.

Our two teams from our league were from Washburn High School and South High School.  Washburn’s team was the incredibly talented duo of Brandon Bogan and Anna Parshall.  Brandon is a Junior, and Anna a Sophomore.  I am thrilled by their performance and excited that I will have them around next year to be leaders for the UDL.
Brandon and Anna went up against some of the toughest teams at the tournament, but they persevered and advanced beyond preliminary rounds, into trophy contention. They were an octo-finalist (meaning they were ranked 16th at the tournament). For those not familiar to the tournament structure – students with the top records in preliminary debate rounds, are able to advance for trophy contention into “out rounds” which determine trophy placement.  Octofinals to quarterfinals, to semifinals, to finals.

In addition to becoming an octo-finalist, Brandon Bogan also received a speaker award of 7th place (out of 80 students)! This is an incredible feat, as he was debating against some of the best students in the country.

In addition to their success, while we were in New York City, two other Washburn debaters, Jacarri Roberson and Micheala Boone, were representing the Urban Debate League at a convening for the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.
Thank you again for all your support of the debate program at Washburn – what a thrilling year!

If you want to come to the finals, they will be March 25th at 6 pm at Moos Tower at the U of M.

For this initiative, AIGA Minnesota, the professional association for design, has teamed 20 Washburn art students with 20 graphic design students from Twin Cities colleges to create powerful public billboards that address the theme of tolerance in a variety of compelling and thought-provoking ways. This nine-week program is designed to give participating students the tools and guidance they need to create an impactful message which will have broad visibility in their community.

The Washburn students meet weekly with their mentors during Tuesday morning classes taught by art teacher Nancy Hinz. “It is an excellent opportunity for my students to collaborate with talented graphic design students while learning more about the design process and possible career options,” said Hinz. “They are so excited about their work being displayed for the general public to see!”

Lisa Musselman, Director of Volunteers for AIGA Minnesota and project coordinator for Create! Don’t Hate smiled when she commented that, “I don’t know who is more enthusiastic—the high school students or the college-aged mentors. This is definitely a win-win situation for everyone involved. There is lots of creative energy and inspiration going back and forth.”

One highlight will occur halfway through the project, when esteemed professional designers from the Twin Cities design community will join the mentor/mentee teams to offer constructive critiques. Then, during a celebration at the end of the project, several layouts will be selected for display on billboards throughout the metro area.

The Create! Don’t Hate project is an initiative of Design Ignites Change, a nationwide program that challenges students to use design thinking and innovation to explore and create solutions to pressing social problems, and is funded by Adobe Youth Voices and Worldstudio. AIGA Minnesota, one of the nation’s oldest and largest professional design organizations, has partnered with Adobe and Worldstudio to bring the project to the Twin Cities. To learn more, visitwww.designigniteschange.org

Robotics Team Coach and Washburn Physics Teacher Peter Grul and team members showed the near capacity crowd at the Windows of Opportunity Kickoff event Thursday evening that sports and arts aren’t the only impressive programs with lots of momentum at WHS. Grul, with team members at his side, showed the video above of his team successfully competing at state and regional events.