Kaden Brown prepares to demonstrate the movements of his voice-controlled robot during Thursday evening’s program.
MECCANO, a robot that could spin around, tilt its head and wave its arms was a crowd favorite at Thursday evening’s Celebration of Education in the Mansfield Senior High commons.
Hundreds of parents, grandparents and others turned out for the annual Mansfield School Employees Association event. The program, whose theme was “Wild About Our Tygers,” featured singing, presentations and displays by each district school.
MECCANO is the creation of senior Kaden Brown, an engineering student and Robotics Club member, who already has earned college credits and a scholarship.
“My goal is to become a mechanical engineer,” said Brown. “It took me about 13 hours straight to build MECCANO. He can dance and tell jokes. He is voice-activated and I can control him from my phone.”
Brown also exhibited a smaller, four-wheel robot – capable of playing “robot hockey” -- that was a more complex project.
“That one took me a month or more. There was a lot of trial and error but that’s how I learned as I got it right,” he said.
Earlier this week Brown earned a $500 scholarship to North Central State College when the smaller robot, his senior engineering capstone project, was judged one of the five best at the 2017 Ohio College Tech Prep annual stakeholders meeting at the Kehoe Center in Shelby.
Brown previously was awarded a two-year Tuition Freedom Scholarship from NCSC based on the college credits he has earned in English, math and engineering while at Senior High.
The “Wild About Our Tygers” theme included free “jungle joe” sandwiches and soft drinks. Cookies baked and decorated by the Senior High culinary arts department featured alligators, butterflies, trees, even rhinoceroses.
The evening also featured free books and face painting for children and free jungle-theme MSEA T-shirts.