Nothing nerdy about robotics title

I had heard the stories.

As a freshman on my first day in high school, I would have to run from the seniors, who had license to smack around freshmen, humiliate them in any way possible and even dunk their heads in the toilets.

It took only a few hours to note the reality was quite different. The seniors, in contrast to the legend, treated the freshmen with absolute indifference. In the course of their high school day, we were gnats, not worthy of the energy needed to accomplish a swat.

Last August at Lakewood Ranch High School, freshman Austin Bruce was about to be the gnat.

Bruce, an admitted space nerd, appeared at a Technology Student Association meeting for robotics with the thought of finding the perfect extracurricular activity.

It was there he met senior Zachary Geiger.

If Bruce was a nerd wannabe, Geiger was the accomplished, real-deal nerd, at least when he wasn't competing on the baseball field. He was a robotics shining star, who most likely would have been decorated with national high school championships had not the pandemic taken away a couple years of competitive opportunities. His self-proclaimed "nerdiness" had set him up to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach on scholarship. 

But this just-completed semester would be his last high school opportunity to win the elusive national gold. In this first TSA/robotics mixer, Bruce was to interview possible teammates to help him along his quest.

In all honestly, Geiger didn't need anyone to drag him down. No one was committed as he was to the task: winning the VEX Robotics Competition at the National TSA Conference held June 27-29 at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas.

So what would a gnat have to offer?

When he talked to Bruce, though, he found out. He saw not a kid of a certain age, but a kid who shared a passion. He saw a kid willing to pore over hundreds of YouTube robotics videos to find that one tiny modification that could give them an advantage.

He saw a kid willing to work in the background so he could learn.

It didn't take long for others to see similarities as the two struck a partnership.

"They would call him a Mini Me," Geiger said of what his classmates would call Bruce. "He wants to learn. He wants to build. He wants to know what he can do better. So I would send him out: 'Can you get me a 24-tooth gear?'"

Bruce was happy to go on errands. He knew his role, at least to start, wouldn't be hands-on. So he would go to robotics websites, and read, and learn. Most of all, he watched his mentor.

"He taught me how to be a better leader, how to have a more creative mind," Bruce said. "There were so many things. He would run a screw at a 45-degree angle instead of 90 degrees because it would work better. He would make a part into something it wasn't."

Bruce tried to follow the lead to the point where their movements at competitions looked very similar.

"When we would walk next to each other, people would say they saw the same movements," Bruce said with a laugh as he mimicked Geiger's stride.

It wasn't hard to understand why they connected.

"The time you spend together for something like this, the emotions of it," Geiger said. "You working at 11 at night in a garage. It bonds you together."

They took a pile of metal bolts, gears, eight motors and two pneumatic cylinders and built a robot that would be able to complete specified tasks in a narrow time frame. Geiger would control the robot with a glorified joystick as it raced around a 12-foot-by-12-foot field. In this particular case, the robots were asked to collect and stack rings.

Oh, and three other teams were competing at the same time, giving the competition a sort of cross between MIT Gone Wild and Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots. If your creation couldn't withstand a few hard knocks, well, thanks for coming.

Always seeking an edge, Geiger would connect online with robotics enthusiasts from Japan, or Europe, or Canada. He would seek ideas and tips, returning to the workshop to try new ideas. He would attend other robotics competitions in Florida or beyond to note other innovative ideas. Then it was back to the workshop.

"My strength is to see the flaws of a robot, then to do what I can to make sure our robot doesn't have that flaw," Geiger said.

Meanwhile, Bruce was making significant advances. He became more than just Geiger's spotter during events. He began writing codes, using calculus, for the robots, helping Geiger to have fewer duties in directing the robots with the joystick once the competitions began.

Geiger and Bruce didn't even win the state competition. They placed second. While they qualified for the national event with that finish, the School District of Manatee County didn't pay their way. That luxury only goes to state champs.

But at the nationals, they trotted out their fourth generation of their 2022 robot. Many of their competitors were still using their first- or second-generation robots.

At the nationals, all the teams were forced to combine with another team or teammate they didn't know. The were assigned Ayush Karkare of the Downingtown STEM Academy of Pennsylvania. The three survived a brutal round-robin format to eventually take the national title.

The award is significant, but certainly it is not the most significant part of the journey. If the two boys had fallen two rings short of a national championship, they still would have propelled each other toward their aeronautical dreams. That pursuit might well influence others to follow their paths.

Most of his freshman year, Bruce doubted he had the mental capacity to build robots similar to Geiger's creations. But, now, no longer a gnat, he not only is comfortable building his own creations but also wants to teach others to do so during his next three years at Lakewood Ranch High.

He can't wait to get started.

At the Bruce household in Mill Creek, the two boys posed for photos with their award. I asked to take a photo of them with their winning robot.

Bruce already had taken it apart so he could begin building the next one.