Robots are coming to Outdoor Movie Night

Hank, the Shorewood robot
Photo courtesy Wes Proudlove

Shorewood High School's Team Pronto likes a challenge and for the last four years, they've competed with thousands of other teams worldwide in a competition put on by an organization called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).  

On Saturday, August 25, Team Pronto will show off two of their creations as part of the pre-movie entertainment at Ballinger-North City Neighborhoods' 4th annual Outdoor Movie Night.

Teams have 6 weeks to build a robot.  Team Pronto has built robots that can play soccer, tic-tac-toe, and this year, shoot hoops.  The team has about 40 members and includes freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  It is supervised by Mr. Wesley Proudlove, Shorewood's autoshop teacher.

Students work in the autoshop, brainstorming with teammates, building prototypes for parts of the robot, and learning how to use the tools in the shop.  Though they have some amazing mentors — engineers at Boeing and students at the UW — the entire robot is hand-built by the students.

2011 Team Pronto basketball competition

The hard work is not without rewards.  In 2011, the team made it into the quarterfinals in competitions in Seattle and Portland and won an award for innovation in design with their "voodoo arm" controller.  In 2012, they competed in Seattle at the end of March, and then in Spokane in the beginning of April.

So, come and see these creations in action and then find a seat on the grass and get ready for this year's movie, Puss in Boots.  Other pre-movie activities include games, face-painting, and crafts.  They'll be music. Concessions will be selling drinks, snack items, glowsticks, and extra raffle tickets to improve your odds at winning one of this year's fabulous prizes. 

Gates open at 7pm at Aldercrest Annex (NE 200th St in Shoreline).  Admission is free.  Saturday August 25.