FORT THOMAS — Its name is Cletus. It began as a pile of gears, sheet metal, wheels and tiny motors.

        But in a couple of weeks, the $5,000 remote-controlled robot will make its debut at 5 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 135 pounds before taking off for Walt Disney World.

Emily Ruschman, 14, a freshman at Highlands High School, works on Cletus the robot. Assisting are Procter & Gamble engineers Dave Morris (left) and Bob Steller. (Mike Simons photo) | ZOOM |

        Cletus is the product of a partnership between Highlands High School and Procter & Gamble. Twenty-two Highlands students, two teachers and several parents have teamed up with P&G engineers to design and build the robot in only six weeks for a national robotics competition.

        “It gives students a taste of what it's like to design and develop something in an ab breviated schedule,” said Margaret Adriatico, a P&G engineer working on the project. “We usually don't design in six weeks.”

        The students, teachers and engineers have been working four nights a week plus Saturday mornings in a three-car garage at one of the students' homes.

        Highlands will be the first Northern Kentucky school and the second in the state to enter the FIRST Robotics Competition, considered the premier robotics contest for high schoolers.

        FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a nonprofit organization based in New Hampshire. Aimed at forming partnerships among schools, universities and businesses, FIRST has been holding the annual competition since 1992.

        “This is where all the future engineers come from. You only get the best of the best,” said Austin Raabe, a Highlands chemistry teacher working with the students.

        But the Procter & Gamble engineers are old hands. Since 1994, P&G has partnered with three Cincinnati high schools — Northwest, Walnut Hills and Aiken — winning several awards. P&G puts more than time into these partnerships. The company has donated $20,000 to Highlands for the project, including a $5,000 entry fee, money for materials and construction, and some travel expenses.

        Not only does the competition help promote science and technology with youth, P&G sees its participation as an investment, a way to recruit some of the area's top technology students, Ms. Adriatico said. Many former participants have landed internships and even jobs with the consumer goods giant.

        “Plus, it's just a lot of fun,” she said.

        The national competition is April 5-7 in Orlando, Fla. The Highlands team, named Defunkt, will compete against 300 teams from around the country.

        The competition's rules and objectives are different every year. In early January, schools got this year's guidelines and a box of parts. Teams don't have to use all the parts, and they can add others from a select list.

        Design is as vital as construction. For example, the students chose wheels for Cletus instead of tread, which has too much friction, said Highlands senior Jason Liles, 18.

        “There's more to it than making a machine,” he said. “The strategy is just as important. ... I've really found out a lot more about what it takes to be an engineer.”

        The students will debut Cletus at 3 p.m. Feb. 18 at Highlands High before shipping the robot to the competition's sponsors.

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