After a spell of Blogger not working, I'm back up and running. This was a fun story to report last week, and I might have even learned something. But it's tricky to get engineers to speak English, even when they're not old enough to vote.

Aptos HS Robotics Club wins international competition for underwater robot

By Ketti Wilhelm

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   06/28/2013 06:32:25 PM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Contributed Members of the Aptos High School Robotics Club, winners of the international... ( SCS )

APTOS -- Seventeen-year-old Chris Randolph is the president of Aptos High School's Robotics Club, but his business card gives him a different title: CEO, pilot and director of software engineering for Aptos Mariners Robotics LLC.

The "company" beat out 29 teams from around the world with their underwater robot, called The Kraken. They designed and built the robot, or remote operated vehicle, to repair a permanent ocean observation system, a collection of sensors used to gather data such as water temperature and salinity.

The annual competition, held by Monterey Peninsula College's Marine Advanced Technology Education, poses a reality-based problem for students to creatively engineer their way out of each year.

"At the competition, you'll see ROVs that look completely different, and you'd never guess they do the exact same thing," Chris said.

The 13-member Aptos team took first place for their mission performance, written technical report and in the competition overall.

In response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the challenge in 2011 was to build a robot capable of capping an underwater oil well.

The Aptos team won the international competition that year, too.

That was also the year Chris joined the team as a freshman, specializing in software design. He's spent the past three years tweaking his program that uses an Xbox controller to command the underwater robot.

Chris' younger sister, Catie Randolph, 16, started with the team this year as a sophomore and designed The Kraken's claw. Her brother then used his Xbox controller to tell the claw to open locks and doors and unplug and plug in cables on the station.

While competing with teams from Egypt, Scotland, Singapore and elsewhere, Catie said she stays focused on her job, not on the competition.

"At the international competition, I don't look at the other teams," Catie said. But when the teams are done competing, they get a chance to network, exchange ideas and make friends with young scientists from across the globe.

Another requirement of the competition is that teams present their work like a business.

"There's a lot more to it than just building. A lot more that people expect," said Kayla Zoliniak, 17. As the director of business development, she was in charge of fundraising more than $10,000 for parts and travel to get to the competition in Seattle.

"She's the other half of my brain," Chris said of Zoliniak. "I may be the technical president, but she does the actual organizing. I just give her word law."

Chris said Zoliniak also excels in the presentation aspect of the competition, when each team member has to explain his or her portion of the project to the judges. Chris and Katie said that's the hardest part of the competition for them.

Aptos' team is known for dressing up in suits for their presentation. Now, it's catching on and other teams are stepping up their game.

In addition to engineering and business, the team also includes specialists in areas such as environmental research and safety.

Joseph Manildi, a physics teacher at Aptos High and one of the team's mentors, said seeing kids with different interests work together has been his favorite part of the process.

"They were kids who didn't necessarily know each other (before joining the club)," Manildi said. "And they were able to bond and listen to each others' ideas and realize that they all have something to offer."

Santa Cruz father, baseball coach fights brain cancer

By Ketti Wilhelm

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted:   06/21/2013 08:22:40 PM PDT

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Kate Doan nuzzles her 3-month-old son Hudson as while she rests outside of the Studio 831 gym in...

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SANTA CRUZ -- This weekend, Nick Doan gets to take a break from his second round of radiation therapy and enjoy a community benefit organized in his honor by doting, lifelong friends in his Westside community.

A construction worker and beloved baseball coach at Santa Cruz High School, Doan, 33, has spent the past two months fighting an aggressive, inoperable form of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.

Doctors discovered the tumor when Nick started having seizures about a month after his wife, Kate, gave birth to their second child. The cancer first appeared three years ago, in Nick's left frontal lobe. He went through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy to stop it. Now, another tumor is growing in an area of the brain used for language. Doctors don't want to operate and risk leaving Nick unable to communicate.

"On the lighter side, he's made it three years, and most people don't," Kate said with a tense smile, while nursing her baby boy, Hudson. "So, I don't underestimate him for anything."

In the face of a daunting diagnosis, the family's outlook is one of strength and positivity. It's impossible not to see that in Kate as she sits at a table in the shade outside Studio 831, a Westside gym where she exercises and where Nick's benefit will take place.

Paige Nutt Smith, a lifelong friend of both Nick and Kate, owns the gym, and it's also where Kate, 34, does her daily CrossFit workout. CrossFit involves a constant variation of functional movements, from Olympic weightlifting to cardio to gymnastics exercises.

Even with a baby in her arms, she looks more like a professional athlete than a woman who gave birth in March.

Normally, Kate works as a per-diem nurse, filling in open shifts when full-time nurses can't. But while taking care of Nick, plus their 5-year-old daughter and an infant, she hasn't been able to work. The Doans are now depending on help from friends and family and Emergency Medi-Cal insurance.

"I tried to get private insurance for him a couple of years ago," Kate said. "But with his history, they just basically laugh at you."

Two weeks ago, Nutt Smith and another close friend, Nicole Carter, came up with the idea to hold a benefit to raise money for the Doans and to bring the community together around them.
The women said they've been touched by the community's outpouring of support.

Businesses have donated numerous items for the raffle and silent auction that will be part of Sunday's event, including massages, haircuts, wine, kiteboarding lessons, skateboards, rounds of golf and stays at the Hilton and Hotel Paradox. The website Nutt Smith set up for people to donate to the family has brought in more than $13,400 from 130-plus donors.

Carter and Smith gushed about Nick's contagious smile, dry sense of humor and passion for his community and for children.

"He's the guy who will introduce himself to you and give you the handshake before anyone else will," Carter said.

The past two weeks have been a blur of planning for her and Nutt Smith. They've been promoting the benefit with fliers at local businesses and social networking.

"I just want people to come who want to be here," Kate said. "It'll be perfect however it is. It could be five people or it could be 105."

Carter said more than 1,100 Facebook invites have gone out and 111 people have given their virtual word that they would come.

With CrossFit workouts, a kids' obstacle course, beer and Jason Williams, of the local band Ribsys Nickel, as master of ceremonies, the three women are hoping the event will help keep up the positive energy Kate and Nick fill their lives with.

"This isn't an, 'Oh, I'm so sad,' situation," Kate said. "This is a very tough and tragic situation, but we're going to make it."

Follow Sentinel reporter Ketti Wilhelm on Twitter at twitter.com/KettiWilhelm

If You Go

Benefit for Nick Doan

WHAT: Benefit event for Nick Doan, a local man who is fighting an aggressive type of brain cancer. The event will include CrossFit workouts for all ages and levels, an obstacle course workout and a bounce house for kids, a barbecue, beer, a silent auction and a raffle.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday. CrossFit workout for all ages and all levels at 10. Advanced CrossFit workout at 11. Obstacle course for kids at 11:30. Barbecue and beer to follow.
WHERE: Studio 831, 2351 Mission St., Santa Cruz
COST: $40 donation for one or two workouts, a hat, barbecue lunch and beer; $25 donation for one or two workouts and a hat; $20 donation for one or two workouts; $15 donation for barbecue lunch and beer.
DETAILS: Email studio831@gmail.com
TO DONATE: www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/8gj2/nick-doans-fund

Young UM grad keeps busy in second House term

Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2013 10:16 pm

Posted on February 14, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

Two turns of the election cycle are all that separate a wide-eyed first timer and a progressive, political powerhouse.

Bryce Bennett made headlines when he was first elected in 2010 for being both very young – he was 25 – and gay. He’s now wading through his second session in the Montana House of Representatives. When Bennett won his seat representing Missoula’s House District 92, he was the youngest lawmaker in the state. Three years later he’s lost that accolade, but gained experience without letting success go to his head.

“I feel good about the fact that somebody walking up to my desk and calling me ‘Representative’ still feels a little silly to me,” Bennett said.

The University of Montana graduate grew up in the small town of Hysham, Mont., located between Billings and Miles City, but graduated from high school in Missoula. He said his transition from freewheeling freshman to legislative leader – a role he’s been training for since he was a teenager – has brought increased responsibility.

“Last session I felt like I had more free time,” Bennett said. “I always kind of felt like I was on top of things. Now, from the point I walk into the Capitol in the morning to the time I leave at night, I am constantly busy.” 

Bennett, 28, now chairs the House Democratic Caucus and is State Administration committee vice chair. As caucus chair, he helps communicate the House Democrats’ philosophy to the media, constituents and other legislators. As a committee vice chair, Bennett presents his party’s case in committee meetings and informs other Democrats of the details of bills that are produced or altered by the committee.

It’s not just free time that he misses from his first session in the House. Bennett said he laments not having as much time to keep in close contact with his constituents. 

“I don’t want people to be sitting at home thinking that I’m setting their concerns on the back boiler,” Bennett said.

The second-term legislator said his priorities this session are keeping voting rights strong and “bringing some transparency to politics in a post-Citizens United world.”

“We need to know who’s spending money in our elections, and how much and where,” Bennett added.

When he was elected in 2010, Bennett was Montana’s first openly gay man in the state Legislature. As the prominence of his youth fades, he hopes this distinction will, too.

“We're getting to the point where there are not going to be a lot of firsts anymore. You're not going to be the first gay, or lesbian or transgender person; you're just going to be another person” who got involved, Bennett said. 

He said some people feel Montana has a social and political climate that does not allow gay politicians or issues to be taken seriously. But he urged other members of the LGBT community to enter local politics.

“I think our state is moving forward,” he said, pointing to other successful LGBT politicians, including Missoula’s Democratic Councilwoman Caitlin Copple and Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena.

At UM, Bennett said he was involved with the Lambda Alliance and the College Democrats and was an ASUM senator. In fact, he said extracurricular activities were the highlight of his education.

“I showed up to class and did the work,” Bennett said. “But I don’t know if there are any professors who could pick me out of a line-up.”

When the Legislature isn’t in session, Bennett works as the political director of Forward Montana, an organization he helped found in 2004, while a freshman at UM.

“We were really tired of hearing the conventional wisdom that young people don’t vote; young people don’t care,” Bennett said. “So we put together Forward Montana as a response to that.” 

Matt Singer, a Forward Montana co-founder, said the organization has grown exponentially since that time, when his living room was its home base.

Forward Montana now has a paid staff and a mass of volunteers known around campus as the pink bunnies who relentlessly prompted students to register to vote upon coming or going from the University Center last fall.

Having worked with Bennett intermittently for eight years, Singer described him as “an incredibly hard worker and good listener.”

UM grad fights for children, students in Legislature

Posted: Thursday, February 7, 2013 10:17 pm | Updated: 10:31 pm, Thu Feb 7, 2013.

Posted on February 7, 2013

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  by Ketti Wilhelm

In 2007, Jenifer Gursky was volunteering with children in Cambodia when she realized she didn't have the skills she needed to deal with the poverty issues that confronted her. So she applied to the University of Montana from a computer kiosk in Phnom Penh.

Last month, Rep. Gursky, a Democrat representing northwestern Missoula’s House District 98, saw her first bill pass the House. House Bill 131 aims to help children lead a better life by requiring doctors, teachers and other professionals report suspected abuse.

“I have become incredibly driven for working on behalf of the public,” Gursky said of her new job. “There is no higher calling than to work for people.”

She added in an email that she is still learning how to fulfill her duty as a voice of her peers “with dignity, grace, patience, and humility.” 

After studying vocal performance in Wyoming, Gursky returned home to Polson to become a youth pastor. She joined Youth With a Mission and the group sent her to Amsterdam to work with victims of human trafficking in the Red Light District and study for similar work in Cambodia.

“I wasn’t really interested in politics initially,” Gursky said. “But I was really interested in how policy affects our lives.”

She didn’t wait for graduation to dive deeper into politics. She began her political career at UM, preceding Zach Brown as president of the Associated Students of the University of Montana. 

Brown said Gursky was a dedicated mentor as he began his term, even while she was in the heat of her campaign for the House last fall.

He said Gursky’s powerful leadership as president paved the way for ASUM to deal more professionally with administrators, politicians and the Board of Regents. 

Gursky graduated last May with a degree in political science emphasizing international relations and a minor in international development studies – just three weeks before winning the Democratic primary for HD-98. 

When it comes to getting involved, Gursky, 32, advises students to be bold.

“Don’t dip your toe in, just jump,” she said. “Any campaign that you can help in, any way that you can get connected in your community. Politics is really a hands-on sport.” 

But it’s not a sport for everyone, which Brown has learned. He said a career in politics used to interest him, but his current post has made him reconsider. The job didn’t have that effect on Gursky.

“She’s got the personality for it and she’s really good at what she does,” Brown said of his predecessor. “And she likes it and that’s amazing.” 

Though politics may suit her, Brown said Gursky is not a typical politician. 

“I really trust that she genuinely has students’ interests in mind,” Brown said. “You can't always know that kind of thing with politicians.”

Another of her projects, known as the Smart Buildings Initiative, is a collaboration with Brown and other student leaders that she started working on last spring. 

Brown said the bill would encourage retrofitting state-owned buildings to improve their energy efficiency. The buildings’ owners, such as universities, for example, would get to keep the money they save on energy costs and use it for future projects to improve other buildings.

The concept is popular, Brown said, but so complex that it has taken a year to iron out the details. They’ve just finished drafting the bill and Brown said a House committee should review it before the end of the month.

Gursky also plans to introduce bills dealing with human trafficking in Montana, adoption laws and landlord-tenant issues, among others.

After moving to Helena for the legislative session, Gursky said she misses Missoula’s sense of community, as well as some local restaurants and breweries. 

“I’m not really a big going-out person, but I would kill for a good Cold Smoke,” Gursky said. “They don’t sell it in Helena and it’s killing me.”