Symphony of the Roboteers

I've gotten to know many of the students on the FIRST robotics team.  Almost half have been alumni of middle school programs I've run.  We are starting to get siblings of earlier team members, some of whom have been on the periphery of the team for years.  And there's nothing quite like the intensity of build season to get to know people.  So much time and energy, so many triumphs and setbacks.  So I have a passing interest in what they are going to do going forward.  When I asked one of the soon to graduate kids about post HS plans he said he was going to be a full time music teacher.  From the instrument involved I'm guessing classical genre.  He's presumably pretty good although A: I've never heard him play, and B: I'm living evidence that you don't have to actually be good at something to be an effective teacher.  This got me thinking on the connections between robotics and music.

It's not a new observation on my part.  Why I've mentioned a few times that schedule conflicts between robotics and assorted music programs have been frequent annoyances.  Marching Band in the fall has kept us from doing much pre-season prep.  Every two years we have lost half the team during a critical phase of build season for a one week Music Department trip somewheres. Yes, music and robotics have more than a casual connection.

But why?  And what sort of music best explains the convergence?

On the most simplistic level reading and playing music has something in common with programming.  You need to understand the language.  You need to coordinate things with precision.  It's not good to have the trombones clobber the flute solo or to have the pneumatics trigger at the wrong moment and lift your robot clear off the ground.  Timing is crucial in both situations.

But that's not a full explanation.  Music groups and robotics teams are both subcultures in the larger school ecosystem.  Each attracts those whose abilities and interests are just a bit different from mainstream.  They find like minded peers.  They are among their own kind.

I'm not particularly musical.  I have styles I like.  Classical.  Early '70s "outlaw" country.   I have styles I don't like.  Without commenting on its - presumptive - artistic merits I find the many flavors of Rap to be discordant racket, and if you actually listen to the lyrics much of it is not material appropriate for high school and middle school ears.  On this basis I've used my seldom invoked powers as Robot Overlord to nix use of it in team video productions.  At their age I lived in a neighborhood where crime, violence and racial discord were prevalent.  Trust me, it ain't that great.

I think if there is one style of music most attuned to robotics it would be another that I don't find particularly engaging, although I have no objections to it otherwise.  Jazz.  To the extent that my non musical self can appreciate it the premise often seems to be a base structure from which elements can stray off and then return.  It captures the free form, semi-structured improvisation that makes the best engineers.  On our team we are not trying to train the next generation of unimaginative cubicle drones.  We hope to bring up a cohort of much needed creative minds who will go out and do amazing things.  Things that like the robots they've built, sometimes succeed or fall short in ways that pedestrian minds would not have predicted.

And how are we doing?  It's still early days.  I think the first of our pioneer crew is now graduating college.  Or not.  Along with the people pursuing engineering degrees - and one going into music - we have others who will be as mentioned teaching music.  Or playing in that garage band in a neighboring community.  Or, in the case of another pursuit where timing and improv are key, driving truck while waiting for the big break in Stand Up.

Here's a video that expresses things in ways I can't manage with words.  Not really jazz so much as Electronic Music.  Don't be fooled, behind the robots performing there are some extremely talented programmers, mechanical builders and someone with a sense of whimsy.  I wonder where they came from?