Montini Catholic High School students explore robotics for competition

LOMBARD – Montini Catholic High School Technology Director Peter Farina and Computer Club members had a rare opportunity to visit with members of Northern Illinois University’s Robotics Club this fall.

They spent two hours with the NIU Robotics Club during an open house at the university in DeKalb. Farina and his students from Montini in Lombard toured the College of Engineering at NIU, as well as the Robotics Lab. Promod Vohra, dean of the College of Engineering, joined the students during their tour, and students assisted in making an NIU Huskie sign.

“The NIU Robotics Club gave us tons of good advice about getting our competitive robotics team started and also filled us in on all of their current projects,” Farina said in a news release. “They are working on a ground robot, a flying quad-copter robot, and a new effort for them is an underwater robot. Each of their three robotics projects are for a national competition for that type of robot.”

Farina’s competitive Robotics Team, born out of Montini’s STEM Initiative – for science, technology, engineering, mathematics – is a new venture at the school. It took first place at the College of DuPage Engineering Olympics in April 2015.

The Montini STEM Initiative is designed to meet the needs of students with an aptitude for science, technology, math and their application to the field of engineering. It includes exposure to engineering through activities and competitions outside the classroom.

The high school offers Computer Apps, Programming in Java, CAD I, Digital Design, Web Design and Programming Robotics courses in the curriculum. Computer Club and STaRT (Student Technology Resource Team) are provided as extracurricular activities each school year.

Montini Catholic’s Programming for Robotics class is a hands-on STEM course that provides an introduction to computer programming and robotics engineering. During the course, Montini Catholic students learn Scratch, a visual programming language developed by the Media Lab at M.I.T., as well as robotics control extensions, Enchanting and Lejos.

Through the course, students explore basic engineering principles as they build programmable robots designed to accomplish specific tasks. It includes real-world, problem-solving challenges and challenge-based competitions and is open to junior and senior students who have been recommended by instructors.

Scratch Programming Camp, Robotics Camp and App Inventor Camp are offered in Montini’s Summer Camp program to grade school and high school students. Summer camp information will be available in January.