Bob Stark and students put the finishing touches on "Bulldog."

Working after school and on weekends in Columbia's mechanical engineering laboratory since mid-January, 30 high school students from the Bronx put the finishing touches on a robot of their own design that they hope will outdo competing teams in a national Olympic-style contest that tests strategy and technological know-how.

The 30 students from Morris High School, most of them first-year students and sophomores, spent the three-day Presidents' Day holiday weekend in a final marathon work session on campus with Columbia engineering faculty and students to complete the three-foot, 130-pound robot nicknamed "The Bulldog." Guided by Bob Stark, manager of the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the students created two drop-down wheels to give their robot extra torque for pushing and pulling and a forklift, crane arms and clamp to move balls into scoring position during the contest next month.

They will enter the remote-controlled, battery-powered gladiator in regional contests sponsored by FIRST (for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit foundation founded by inventor Dean Kamen that promotes science and technology education. Columbia for the first time will host the New York City regional competition March 15-17 in Levien Gymnasium, which will draw teams from 35 metropolitan high schools, including five from New York City, with 2,000 visitors expected on each day of the event, according to Dana Vlcek, coordinator of corporate outreach for the Computer Science Department at the engineering school. Vlcek is serving as Columbia's campus organizer of the event, working with Jackie Pavlik, staff associate for information technology.

Although the design-and-build stage emphasizes engineering principles, strategy and collaboration, the contest itself is more like a major sporting event, complete with cheerleaders, loud pep bands and flashing lights and stands filled with thousands of cheering fans, as the competitors maneuver their robots across an enclosed playing area, place colored balls into scoring positions for points and then balance a seesawing platform for two minutes. Involving more than 25,000 students nationwide, the contest will culminate on April 5-7 with the national championships in Orlando, Fla.

The competition, now in its seventh year, brings students together with sponsors from industry, higher education and the corporate world to design and construct the robots. Each team is given six weeks to complete the project using identical supplies of parts and software. Key Span Energy, the McGraw-Hill companies, Business Week and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have sent engineers and other technical employees to the Columbia lab to work with the Morris High students. In addition to designing and building their robot, each team creates a computer animation of their design and a 10-minute video advertisement for the robotics project.

The University's involvement in the robotics competition is part of its ongoing community outreach to public schools. Vice Dean Morton Friedman noted that this year the engineering school has opened its introductory course on electrical engineering to students at the Bronx High School of Science.

This is the second year that engineering faculty and students have volunteered their time to work with the Morris High School team. Columbia's guidance last year helped the team, then participating for the first time, win a Judges' Award given to the team that has overcome notable challenges in order to achieve a high level of performance, along with a Presidential Classroom Scholarship Award and trip to the White House. The Morris High team also will travel to the Kennedy Space Center March 1-3 to compete in the Southeast regional contest. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has provided a scholarship, which partially funds their trip.

Principal Lourdes Garcia notes proudly that the Morris team's performance last year was all the more impressive as it competed against schools with noted achievement in the sciences and technology. Morris High, which has received public attention owing to the rise of its best known alumnus, Secretary of State Colin Powell, is located in one of the city's most disadvantaged sections of the Bronx.

Acceptance on the Morris robotics team required serious students who were recommended by their teachers, said faculty advisor Gary Israel, although he noted that the school sought wide interests and included special education students, too. The effort has sharpened Israel's own skills in fundraising and public relations as he secured thousands of dollars in corporate donations to cover travel and other expenses and pitched the story to journalists, producing articles in the New York Daily News and the Bronx Times.

Israel said the project's emphasis on collaboration, strategy, teamwork and technical know-how in fields such as circuitry is of enormous value. He has also noticed that students consider their own futures in a more positive light as a result of their work on campus. "You see it every day when we get off the subway and come onto campus. We've talked about it. It's their sense that perhaps this is where their future is if they want to work for it," said Israel.

Jairo Bastilla, a team member, said he has always loved science fiction and so was very excited about the chance to build a robot. "It just sounded pretty cool to me," he said. He said he has learned about electronics and that has been important to him. But what stands out from his weeks on campus is how serious the engineering students are that he has met. "It really shows how hard people work here, and that's impressed me," he said. Tickets to the March 15-17 competition will be available to members of the Columbia community with C.U.I.D. at no cost and may be picked up in the Visitors Center of Low a week before the event. The schedule of events includes practice rounds noon to 5 p.m. Thurs., March 15; qualifying matches 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Fri., March 16; semi-final matches, 9 a.m. to noon, Sat., March 17 and final matches 1 to 3 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony, 3:30 to 4 p.m.