Robotics and Urban Legends
By Nevena Crawford
December 2, 2001
Methodology
I conducted
my research in the form of an interview. One of the girls on my hall,
Liz, was involved in robotics during high school and I had heard her mention
the competitions and some strange instances involving the robotics club
practices and was interested. I asked her prior to deciding on interviewing
her as my final choice if there were any urban legends associated with
robotics and she told me there were thus, sealing my inclination to become
enlightened about the wonders of robotics, second hand.
Description
What
I found through conducting such an interview was not only an awareness
of robotics but also the fact that urban legends exist in such broad
range of aspects and different environments. Liz conveyed to me
several interesting facts about robotics-competitions are regional as well as
nationwide and her team involved five different schools. For six weeks,
the team meets everyday and builds a robot that can be up to 150 pounds
and is thus, a large project. Each year, the team must construct a
robot that has to perform a certain task such as pick up balls or balance
different items. Liz's team went to nationals held in Orlando, Florida,
all four years and last year, she said excitedly, "We won!"
Analysis
Liz's robotics team met in an old vocational school in order to centralize
a place for all five high schools and it was said that there was an urban
legend pertaining to the old auto mechanics room they met in. Starting
just before and continuing on after the death of one student in the room,
other students were constantly the victims of accidents, lights would flicker
on and off, and the electricity surged, all for no appearant reason.
Because of these mysterious incidents, the room was shut down and remained
so up until seven years ago after which it resumed it's role as a forum
of education. Liz conveyed to me after the interview that supposedly,
the occurrences are the direct result of an old janitors ghost who haunted
the room because that was the last place he saw his beloved son who had
died in World War II.
Reflection
This interview went much better than my previous one for although Liz is
a wonderful person and I consider her to be a good friend, we conducted
the interview in a more professional manner in that she conveyed solely
the facts. I am glad that I took the opportunity to interview her
for I now have a better understanding of not only the immense amount of
urban legends and how one can find a legend pertaining to almost anything
but also robotics, an extracurricular activity not offered in most Georgia
schools.