The McCoy School of Engineering hosted the Texas Computer Education Association’s Area 9 Robotics Competition on Jan. 25. More than 200 students from Jacksboro, Vernon, Burkburnett and Crowell ISDs competed in the arena event as well as the intermediate and advanced inventions category.

Associate Professor of Engineering Salim Azzouz said the robotics competition is also a recruitment tool for the college.

“We bring them here and show them our facilities so they have an idea about what’s going on here in Wichita Falls,” Azzouz said. “Even if they don’t come here, they know the facilities and they can talk about it, and their parents can talk about it.”

Azzouz said most of the participants come from outside of Wichita Falls, something the engineering department is trying to fix.

“They don’t have robotic clubs in the high school,” Azzouz said. “I would imagine it’s money problems, but we would love to have the people from Wichita Falls to come to this event.”

Azzouz said that problem of attracting more Wichita Falls students to the robotics competition extends to the students who actually enroll in McCoy: most of them aren’t from Wichita Falls.

“We are a little baffled as a faculty because the majority of our students come from outside Wichita Falls,” Azzouz said. “Many students come from the surrounding ISDs, the satellite towns of Wichita falls. Very few of them come from the three main schools here.”

Dale McDonald, associate professor of engineering, said McCoy should help foster an interest in science and engineering with the community.

“It’s good to have strong community support and we also like to support the community, so it’s just a satisfying experience all the way around,” McDonald said. “I find it very rewarding that they are interested in science and engineering.”

Azzouz said Sheldon Wang, chair of McCoy School of Engineering, started working with Region 9 to build bridges between the university and the 32 school districts that Region 9 serves. Azzouz said this relationship between McCoy and Region 9 will help keep local engineers within the Wichita Falls area.

“The industries here will gain because we will have a lot of local people. Local people want to stay here. They want to find a job here.” Azzouz said. “If [local companies] cannot hire more from here, they go where they can. That’s the problem. For example, Howmet sometimes has to go and recruit from Texas-A&M.”

Wang added that Howmet also recruits college students as far away as Virginia, but once the graduates finish their training, they leave the Wichita Falls-based company.

“That’s why Howmet prefers to hire MSU students and local people,” Wang said, citing help from MSU graduate and president of Alcoa Howmet Michael Pepper as a big source of recruitment. “We do not get any financial support from him, per se. His company very actively recruits graduates from our program. We’ll see them hire 15 to 17 junior students as their interns.”

Wang said the Wichita Falls school board is working on a proposal to build a lab for engineering training for high school students, and they have their eyes on Hirschi.

“They have a very good International Baccalaureate program and a very good science program. Last semester we sent two students every Wednesday to Hirschi to help run the science program,” Wang said. “We would like to build better relationships with local high schools because we have a good engineering program, an affordable engineering program, and we really believe we provide students with comparable training as good as what they’ll get in Texas Tech, UT-Austin or Texas-A&M.”

Wang said beyond recruiting for the university, the robotics competition keeps the students interested in science and technology, something Wang said he thinks is important in modern life.

“You cannot live without a good understanding of science and technology because it permeates into life. Look at the iPhones. These gadgets require good understanding of computer technology and information technology,” Wang said. “This is one of the basic requirements for productive citizens.”

READ: “Scholastic robotic competition held at MSU Jan. 25” by Mijuel Jaime