UC robotics competition leads students to engineering
Emma Korman is a second-year mechanical engineering student at UC
As a high school student, Emma Korman's interest in engineering was sparked by her experience competing in the annual University of Cincinnati robotics competition. Now, she's a second-year mechanical engineering student at UC — and she helps plan the robotics competition to inspire other local kids to follow in her footsteps.
Emma Korman is a second-year mechanical engineering student at UC. Photo/provided.
At UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science, the Office of Inclusive Excellence and Community Engagement, or IECE, is dedicated to introducing the world of STEM to K-12 students in the Cincinnati community through various outreach programs, including the annual robotics competition. For Korman, this competition was life-changing.
Korman joined her high school robotics club when she was in eighth grade just for fun. Unbeknownst to her, this would change the trajectory of her higher-education career.
"I wasn't doing any other extracurriculars at the time and it was something my friends were doing," Korman said. "When I started getting introduced to the coding aspect of it and figured out how to use the computer to make a robot move, I realized it was something I was really interested in."
Growing up, Korman said she was a tinkerer, always interested in building things, so she thought the robotics team would be a good fit for her. When she joined, the team consisted of about a dozen students. By the time Korman was a senior at Mount Healthy High School, she was one of two women that made up the small, but mighty, team. Her teacher and team adviser had close ties with the IECE, namely Don Wittrock, program manager for special grant funded projects, leading Korman to form connections with UC early on.
"Anytime we had questions about our robots, my teacher would make us call Don," Korman said. "It was her way of urging us to create that networking at such a young age with people at the university, which seemed untouchable in middle and high school."
The annual robotics competition tasks students with programming their robots to complete the assigned task or challenge. The challenge changes each year. When Korman was a senior in high school, the challenge was to safely park an airplane that was attached to the robot. It was during this competition when Wittrock knew she'd make a great engineer.
"During the competition, Emma and some other students noticed that while practicing before competing, their robots were performing differently than expected," Wittrock said. "Emma realized it was the carpet."
At the competition, vinyl mats were placed on carpeted flooring. However, at home and at school, the mats were placed on hard flooring. Korman realized that even though the vinyl mats were consistent, the material underneath the mats was causing the robots' behavior to change.
"When we talked to Don and brought his attention to the problem with the carpet, he explained to me that's what a real engineer does, and that really resonated with me," Korman said.
The connection with IECE, Wittrock and the college influenced Korman's decision to choose UC for her engineering degree. She shared that the co-op program and the Turner scholarship she received are what sealed the deal for her. When she got to campus, she reconnected with IECE and Wittrock became her success coach. Throughout her first year, he noticed that she was excelling in her coursework and he referred her to the Protégé Research Program. She was accepted and spent the summer after her freshman year working on the materials team at GE Aerospace.
"Emma, in her work, goes over the material, processes it, practices it and works until she masters it. I knew she would be a great fit for Protégé," Wittrock said.
The Protégé program at UC selects a handful of students to participate in research during the summer after their freshman year. At GE, Korman was given the opportunity to design and perform an experiment from start to finish, something she'd never done before at that level. For her first co-op rotation, she will return to GE and join the testing team.
We really relied on Emma from when she competed. She really wanted the competition to be a positive experience for the kids.
Don Wittrock, Program manager for special grant funded projects
A second-year mechanical engineering student at UC, Emma Korman helps plan the same robotics competition that inspired her to become an engineer when she was in high school. Photo/Corrie Mayer/CEAS Marketing.
The high school robotics competition opened many doors for Korman. It was because of it that she was able to come to UC with existing connections and participate in programs like Protégé. Since the competition did so much for her as a high school student, she wanted to somehow remain involved. IECE let her know that they were looking to add members to the planning committee for the competition and Korman jumped at the opportunity.
"The best part about being on the committee is seeing these students come up with really great ideas and seeing myself in them," she said.
Korman has been instrumental in the designing and planning process of the competition. Since she had participated in it herself several times, she has a unique perspective that IECE staff members and other UC students do not.
Throughout the planning phase, she had to remind the committee that these students didn't have the same engineering background as a senior in the college or an IECE member. For them, the competition was meant to be fun and challenging, but not impossible.
"We really relied on Emma from when she competed. We wanted it to be a challenge, but a doable challenge, and between asking her questions and testing different things, we got it," Wittrock said. "She really wanted the competition to be a positive experience for the kids."
Korman helped with judging the competition as well and will maintain her role on the planning committee.
Featured image at top: Emma Korman (right) and another student at the competition pose with one of the robots. Photo/Corrie Mayer/CEAS Marketing
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