Aiken robotics teams will compete Sat.

MaKenzie Bryant is already a promising engineer, even if she's still in the third grade.

"We like making robots to do different stuff and making them talk," she said.

MaKenzie and her teammates with the North Aiken Elementary School Lego robotics team will compete in a regional Lego competition at the Aiken Technical College gymnasium Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to about 4 p.m.

Teacher and coach Yvonne Fogarty is actually doing double-duty this robotics season. She's a mentor for high school-based M'Aiken Magic's Tech Challenge team G-Force, which, with two other alliance teams from other states, won an international competition last spring.

Fogarty's children - Aiken High junior John and Aiken Middle School eighth-grader Mary - are G-Force team members. They and teammate Logan Murray are also mentors for the North Aiken squad, which is called Bear Force in honor of the school mascot.

"I'm addicted," Fogarty said with a grin. "We have a lot of conversations about robotics at home."

The formal regional event is called the Aiken Regional "Body Forward" Robotics Challenge. That theme calls for students to research body parts or systems and then build a robot with Legos. That effort is intended for students to come up with a technological solution to heal an ailment for that body part.

The other Aiken County schools participating in the regional are Schofield Middle School, St. Mary Help of Christians School, J.D. Lever Elementary School, East Aiken Elementary School and Chukker Creek Elementary School.

"This gives young students a chance to explore innovative ways to solve problems that arise in biomedical engineering," Dr. Alister McLeod, the regional coordinator and an ATC electronics engineering technology instructor, said in a press release.

The teams will make presentations and compete with other teams on specific robotic missions, said Fogarty. Practice opportunities begin at about 8:30 a.m., with formal matches starting around 10 a.m. M'Aiken Magic students will serve as referees for the event.

Fogarty's students are exploring how the brain turns on and off, taking the right amounts of medications, stents for the heart, blood cells and broken bones. She wanted to coach a North Aiken team ever since she began teaching there six years ago.

"I never had the funding," Fogarty said, "but I eventually got a grant to get all the materials. The creativity of these little kids is amazing. They're all learning from each other, and it's a great experience."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.