Watching the Olympics this winter, were you fascinated by the buzzy drone cameras that whooshed down snow slopes or ice tracks following skiers, snow boarders or bobsledders? Did this new, exhilarating way of capturing athletic feats captivate you? Middle and Upper School students at Abington Friends School certainly felt that way, which is why they asked Penn Engineering graduate student Dexter Ong for a hands-on look at this cutting-edge technology during a special visit.

A Dynamic Drone Demonstration

On Monday, interested Middle and Upper School students were treated to a special presentation by Penn Engineering graduate student Dexter Ong, who showcased state of the art camera and drone technology being developed right here in Philadelphia. His visit, sponsored by the Upper School Robotics Club, was opened up to Middle Schoolers to help share the Upper Schoolers’  passion about engineering.

Dexter brought several drones (including one that was safe to demonstrate indoors) and explained its hardware components. He then talked about how we perceive three dimensional space that is the basis of drone navigation. To make it relatable to students, he shared that his drone maps space in cubes just like the video game Minecraft. 

In a live demonstration, he had a student stand and pointed the drone’s camera at the student, streaming what the computerized drone “sees” onto a TV monitor. Then he turned the drone away to show how the drone “remembered” where the student was (still visible on the screen).

When speaking about the ways we measure distance, he mentioned that radar uses sound under water. A Middle School student perked up, “What about bats and echo-location?” At this question, Dexter paused and thanked the student. “I’ve never thought about that connection.”

After his presentation, Dexter shared, “Before college, I didn’t know robotics was a field I might be interested in studying.” His visit was an opportunity for AFS students as early as 5th grade to meet a real-life robotics researcher.

From Field Trip to Classroom

The Upper School Robotics Club originally met Dexter during a February field trip to Penn Engineering. There, in addition to viewing his work, they visited a variety of laboratories with robots that can assess a person’s injuries and vital signs, as well as drones with see-in-the-dark cameras that fly around stationary and moving objects while “thinking for themselves.”

On the Penn tour, the Club was joined by Roobotics alumna Sophia Wang '24, a current undergraduate in Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences who also takes classes in the Engineering School. 

Upper School robotics is on a break from competition this year, but co-clerks Timur Kryzhanovsky '26, Georgie Martin '27 and Leila Wang '27 plan an active schedule for meeting several times a week. Georgie describes her experience with the Club this way, “I never really saw myself as a STEM person. Even though the Club is STEM-oriented, it's really a place for everyone. People assume, ‘Oh, it's math, and it's science,’ but there's so much more. There's design, media, and also friendship.”

In addition to building up their coding, design and teamwork skills this year, Club members are also bringing their passion for Robotics to the Lower School through the Experiential Learning Program. Last week, they showed off the robot that they built for last year’s competition in an interactive demonstration. 

When explaining what’s new in Upper School Robotics Club this year, Georgie shared, “When we meet, we either teach skills or we work on building smaller robots in groups. Sometimes we play silly building games like who can build the tallest tower with spaghetti and marshmallows. We stay on the topic of engineering, but not everything has to be hyper serious. I think we've done a better job of trying to allow students to shine in their specific interests.”