Disney World is more than just an amusement park for a team of Iowa State engineering students, Ames High School students and engineers from the John Deere plant in Ankeny.

The three groups are joining forces to design a robot for a national competition at the Walt Disney World Epcot Center being held April 2-4. This will be the team’s second time participating in the annual “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” (FIRST) Robot Competition.

Involvement in the competition has increased both in the Ames area and across the United States since FIRST began in 1992. That year, only 28 teams attended the competition, but this year, 205 teams are participating.

This year’s team includes five engineers from John Deere, more than 20 Ames High School students and seven ISU engineering students.

“The focus of this competition is on high school students and to get them involved,” said Don Flugrad, associate professor of mechanical engineering and adviser of the team.

Team member Jennifer Richardson, senior in chemical engineering, said a team goal was to get high school students interested in science. Richardson is also a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society at ISU.

That goal was accomplished, according to Flugrad, since two of the Ames High School participants last year are involved this year as ISU engineering students.

“Designing a robot began as a service project of Tau Beta Pi,” said Richardson, adding that the project was part of a high school outreach program.

Richardson, also a member of last year’s team, said the 1997 competition was a special experience. “Last year’s competition at Epcot was the first time I saw people so excited about science and math,” she said.

Members of Tau Beta Pi and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) are eligible to become members of the team.

Flugrad described the event as a “fierce competition.” Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST, wanted this competition to be like the “Olympics of Technology,” Flugrad said.

The competition involves three robots competing against each other on a playing field during two minute matches.

During the match, the robots try to place 20-inch diameter balls into a basket. The robots are radio operated by high school students.

Last year, the team’s robot won its first match but was defeated by a robot made by NASA, Flugrad said.

The main goal for this year’s competition involves global television, sports giant ESPN.

Each year, the network films the competition and re-broadcasts it later.

“We would like to have our robot on ESPN this year,” he said.

Kristi Rude, SWE president and team member, said it is rewarding to carry an idea from a rough concept to the finished product.

“This is an opportunity for high school students to get hands-on experience,” Rude, senior in mechanical engineering, said.

Putting things together and seeing the completed projected is an extremely satisfying experience for both the students and the engineers, Flugrad said.

“When we fire it up and see it work, it’s a real rush,” he said.

Financial support from John Deere and the time their engineers have invested in the project have been a big help, Flugrad said. The company has also made parts for the robot.

Other financial supporters, include Fisher Controls of Marshalltown, Frigidaire of Webster City and Sauer-Sundstrand of Ames.

Richard Smith, Tau Beta Pi adviser and professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, commended John Mathison and Glenn Schwantes, parents of the Ames High School participants, for the time and talent they contributed to the radio control system of the robot.