Building robots and careers

Clad in the team-issued polka-dot vest and mismatched Converse sneakers, Josh Hogsett led the Wom-bots robotics team into battle Saturday at an Orange Coast College competition.

The senior at Orange Coast Middle College High School donned his safety goggles and pit the 18-inch-tall 2400A and another robot against those from Murietta and Anaheim high schools.

“It’s really rewarding to work together and put something together that works as a team,” said Hogsett, 18.

The Wom-bots, named after the school’s wombat mascot, won Saturday’s qualifying competition to advance to May’s Vex Robotics World Finals in Dallas.

Representing schools statewide, students from 18 robotics teams directed their homemade robots to collect foam-rubber cubes and drop them in goals placed around a 12-by-12-foot playing field.

The robots pivot and jerk around the playing field, wheels squeaking as their conveyor-belt-like mechanisms scoop up the blue and red cubes.

Building the robots gives students a chance to learn everything from basic engineering principles to how to put together a business proposal and gain sponsorships for their team, said Charlotte Zaremba, Orange Coast Middle College High School science teacher and Wom-bots team advisor.

“If they can work together and make their robot work, then they’ve already won,” Zaremba said. “They learn how to be team players, and that’s an important skill. It’s what a lot of employers tell us they are looking for.”

The Wom-bots also have been selected as one of four school projects from the county to represent the Orange County Department of Education at the 2009 California Student Technology Showcase in Palm Springs next weekend.

The robotics competitions help prepare students for careers in engineering, where job demand is growing, said Orange Coast College Professor Robert Castano, who has been hosting robotics competitions at the college for the past four or five years.

His college students organize the tournaments and even build the computers to score the games.

“There is no recession in the automation industry,” Castano said. “These students are going to go on to become engineers.”

The Wom-bots team was part of a winning alliance whose 49 points bested competitors’ 18 on Saturday. One of the school’s two robots in the competition finished in third place out of 18 teams.

Sarah Crosby, 16, a junior at Orange Coast Middle College High School, estimates that she spent between two and 10 hours a week this school year to build a robot for the team.

Now she’s taking a college-level robotics class at Orange Coast College.

Her involvement with the school robotics team sparked her interest, she said.

“I think is fascinating how you can take a bunch of pieces of metal and motors and put them together to make something that can complete a task,” Crosby said.

Reporter BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.