Home15 October 2008
New experiences, culture keep students in International Games
Lyle Becotte of Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) was looking forward to seeing new technology from different areas of the world as well as everyone from different countries as he waited to go back in to Tuesday's International Student Games on the ISA EXPO floor after a short break. “It’s neat seeing all these people coming to one place,” he said. “We’re just trying not to get our nerves wracked.”
The most important thing though is to prepare, Becotte said. “A little bit of studying ISA handbooks,” was key to becoming “mentally capable.” Becotte mostly studied Béla Liptak’s instrumentation books, “trying to get my head straight for the games,” he said.
Since Becotte comes from an oil plant, he works on a lot of transmitters. “I work on Foxboro equipment now, so the hardest part will be trying to get used to the different technology and getting used to different ways people do things,” he said.
The big difference is setting up transmitters and getting used to handhelds in one competition. “Searching around and navigating through is difficult at first,” Becotte said. “But it’s not too bad. We’re not so much hoping for the Gold, we’re just here to have fun. But if we get a medal, that’s good too.”
Although working with new equipment is challenging for Javier Miroz Lozano of Mexico’s IPN Zacatenco, it is also a great experience. In school, he was used to working with Rosemount wireless equipment. However, “today, we worked with Phoenix Contact systems,” Lozano said. “We programmed two radio stations to communicate with level sensor inputs and on/off sensors.” Lozano sees the whole experience as special because he loves the U.S. and “learning how to do wireless on new types of equipment. We never get to practice with radios,” he said. “In our university, we don’t have radio stations. This was a special experience. I love this area of wireless technology.”
As a third-time competitor at the Games, Advisor Mark Bohnet with Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon, Iowa, is most looking forward to competing against other schools head to head. Bohnet wants to find out where his team ranks with the rest of the world. “We want to do a good showing for America,” he said.
But he also wants his team to focus on engaging with students from other countries. “We generally don’t get a chance to meet people from Mexico or Brazil or Russia. So we encourage our team to meet these people and understand their culture,” he said.
The big difference this year, Bohnet believes, is there are more teams from other countries. “The contest itself is tighter than last year as well,” he said.
—Ellen Fussell Policastro
And the winners are ...Gold: British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Burnaby, BC, Canada; Ian Ross Advisor Silver: Lambton College, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada; Mike Grey, Advisor Bronze: ITI Technical College, Baton Rouge, La.; Mark Hughes, Advisor What does it take to win the gold?Gold team member Susan Boury of BCIT said a lot of what they worked on at the Games was the same stuff they worked on in class. “One of the problems was to set up a differential pressure (DP) transmitter. But we have to do that in labs anyway. So familiarity really helps,” she said. Coaches are important as well, said BCIT team member Brian Williamson. “They are knowledgeable and encouraging, and they know what’s important.” “And asking questions and being involved helps too,” Boury said. “I treated it as just another day in class.” |
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