RoboCup volunteer scores points in experience

Last week, Tech's campus was swarmed with students, teachers and parents from all over the world for RoboCup 2007. Tech students not only competed on their own robotics team, but also volunteered at this year's event. The 'Nique spoke with one of these robot-savvy volunteers, John Thomas Genter, a fourth-year Management major, about his experiences in RoboCup.

'Nique: How did you hear about RoboCup in the first place?

I heard about it from my girlfriend, who's a Computer Science major. She looked at prior videos about RoboCup on Google and thought it was very cool. When we found out that it was being held at Tech this summer, she insisted that we stay in town this summer so we wouldn't miss it.

'Nique: Why did you decide to volunteer?

I wanted to help Tech put on a very successful show. I mean, this event was such a great recruitment tool for our computer science and new robotics graduate schools. Being able to help with that is definitely worth my time.

'Nique: Have you done anything in the field of robotics before?

Nope. We mostly just helped out with setup, security and moving tables. My girlfriend and I stationed ourselves in the RoboCup@Home areas [where robots navigate a human living environment] and RoboCup Rescue [where robots navigate a specially constructed disaster area] during our non-scheduled times and just helped out where we could.

'Nique: What was the competition like?

Intense! This is the event of the year for the participants. I saw tears shed-both for winning and losing-and tempers flare (usually between teams).

'Nique: What was your favorite competition?

Definitely the Small-Size League (SSL). [It had] little volleyball-sized cylinder canisters, five per team, flying around the court, passing with unbelievable precision and shooting an orange golf ball about 35 miles per hour. Also, I enjoyed the SSL finals a lot. Those little canisters can play soccer! Watching their precision passing and shooting was just amazing.

'Nique: Who was your favorite team?

My favorite team in that competition was the Carnegie Mellon team, CMDragons. They were the only American team and ended up winning it all!

'Nique: Did you meet anyone interesting?

On our way back home after volunteering, my girlfriend and I stopped at Publix for some groceries. On our way out, the Mexican team captain of Pioneros Mexico approached us about trying to catch a taxi back to his hotel. I successfully kept from laughing and explained that he could be waiting for a while. We gave him a ride back to his hotel, along with his two cases of Corona beer and snacks for his team. He explained that they didn't do too well that day and it didn't really matter how well they did the next day. He hoped to catch me later to give me a small bottle of tequila from his city in Mexico as thanks for my assistance, but we never ran into each other again.

'Nique: What did you get out of this experience?

I learned a lot from the RoboCup@Home league. That competition was for home assistant-type robots. They had to perform some interesting (and challenging) tasks, like finding a small object across a crowded area, following a human and safely returning to its original location, and introducing itself to and learning the faces of human strangers for later recall. The open competition was most educational, because the teams were not limited to pre-determined games but taught and shared their research with the other participants and spectators. It was simply amazing!