In June, while much of the world was watching World Cup soccer competition in Germany, there was another crowd focused on a very different kind of soccer tournament:  the international RoboCup 2006, held in Bremen, Germany, where teams from all over the world designed special robots to compete against each other in their own games.  For the second year in a row, Atlanta’s Spelman College qualified to send the world’s only all-female team and only team from a historically Black college.  At the U.S. RoboCup in April Spelman’s team, the SpelBots, tied the team from Brown University and qualified to compete in the world championships in Germany alongside 350 other teams from 40 different countries.  I am so proud of my trailblazing Spelman sisters!  They are role models for Black girls and boys everywhere.

The SpelBots compete in the “four-legged league,” which means they program robots that move on four legs--looking a lot like science-fiction dogs.  In RoboCup competition, all the teams design robots that are capable of playing soccer autonomously.  This means the robots must be programmed to move and play entirely on their own, without remote controls or other human direction.  To do that, they need to be able to track the ball and other players’ movements and then figure out where they need to go themselves through computer codes that help them do things like recognize shapes and colors.  This complicated visual programming is similar to the computer technology used in robots that help with medicine or search and rescue operations.  As one of the SpelBots’ advisors said in a statement, “What we're doing here, although it looks fun and cute, is actually serious research.  We want to help African American students see what they can do.”

Spelman’s team this year included captain Ebony Smith, a graduating senior with a computer and information science major; Andrea Roberson, a senior receiving a dual degree in engineering and computer science; Kina McCanns, a senior with a major in mathematics; and Ashley Johnson, a sophomore majoring in computer and information science.  They are brilliant young women who will be prepared for careers in computer science, animated games and entertainment, engineering, higher education, or wherever their imaginations can take them.

Spelman is using its expertise in robotics to reach out to other Black students.  They recently received a large grant from the National Science Foundation to fund the “C.A.R.E.” program, Computer And Robotics Education for African American Students, to encourage more Black students to pursue math- and science-related majors and careers.  One of C.A.R.E.’s goals is to introduce Black middle school students early on to all the opportunities available in computer science, and this summer Spelman is hosting two sessions of C.A.R.E. Camp, where young students will study fun topics like robotics and video game programming.  This spring, Spelman also hosted teams from Clark Atlanta University, Duke University, Morehouse College, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Voorhees College for a two-day C.A.R.E. Olympiad competition for college students studying computer science-related fields.  Spelman is also using the C.A.R.E. grant to partner with Carnegie Mellon University to develop robotics programs at three more historically Black schools: Hampton University, Florida A&M University, and the University of the District of Columbia.  Through C.A.R.E., many more Black students will be prepared to follow in the Spelman team’s footsteps.

Spelman’s RoboCup team, like other U.S. teams, went into this year’s international competition as underdogs.  German teams ended up winning in the most categories, followed by teams from China, Japan, and Iran.  But if Spelman returns to the world finals next year, they’ll have home court advantage:  RoboCup 2007 is being held in Atlanta.  Meanwhile, for fans back home, the SpelBots are already heroes.  I look forward to seeing what heights Spelman’s women will reach next!