The Bulloch Academy Robotics Team received a special opportunity Monday when they attended a demonstration of East Georgia Regional Medical Center's surgical robot da Vinci Xi.
BA Robotics is a high-school team made up of students that build, code and design a robot.
The team had the chance to test out the da Vinci Xi, a surgical robot that is used for general surgery, as well as thoracic, prostate and gynecology surgery.
The da Vinci robot the Bulloch Academy team saw Monday is an identical version of the surgical robot that East Georgia uses in its operating room.
The demonstration was part of a series the hospital is hosting to show off the new surgical robot, said Erin Spillman, director of marketing at the hospital.
"While we have this mobile robot on site, we're trying to basically share it with anyone that has any type of interest," Spillman said. "We just want to make sure that we are sharing it with our community and our internal family here at the hospital."
After getting a quick demonstration on how the da Vinci Xi operates, the students took turns operating the model, using the surgical arms of the robot to put up and move rubberbands from one rubber pillar to the next.
After a few practice rounds, the students competed against each other in a training exercise that scored them on how well they performed the surgery.
"Through this demonstration, I'm really hoping that the students learn the real applications in life from roboticists," said Derek Harrison, robotics director for Bulloch Academy. "Not only are they building a robot, but they can see the real-world applications of what they're doing."
BA Robotics Team
The team is tasked to build, code and design their robot in six weeks. At the end of the six weeks, the team competes against other robotics teams in Georgia.
"I've learned a lot of skills with regard to building the robot and operating the robot," said J.P. Theriot, a freshman at Bulloch Academy. "Also teamwork, because it is a team sport at its core."
This year, the robotics team was given a kit of parts to build a robot that can pick up a dodgeball and place it inside a target.
During competition, the team has two and a half minutes to place as many balls as they can into a Velcro hatch, which also has to be placed by the team. Teams get two points for every hatch they can place and three points for every ball they can put into a hatch. At the end of the two and a half minutes, the team with the most points wins.
The BA team competed in state district competitions in Albany and Gainesville and performed well enough to move on to the state competition, which took place in Atlanta last weekend.
The team's performance there qualified them for the world competition, which began in Houston Tuesday and runs through Saturday.
"I'm very excited to go to Houston; I've not been there before," said Leander Seitner, a sophomore at Bulloch Academy. "I think it's going to be great meeting teams from all over the world, meeting new people and making new friends."
To see the results of their trip to Houston, visit the robotic team's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/barobotics/.