ARLINGTON The summer robotics day camp at Arlington High School followed its debut last summer with a new set of advanced classes to accompany the basic classes it had already offered in the computer-aided design and wood-shop building behind the main AHS building, and the advanced classes that ran from July 15-17 saw the return of not only several elementary and middle school students from last year, but also a student mentor who’s no longer a student at AHS.

Dan Radion, the former president of the AHS NeoBots Team who graduated last year, joined this year’s president Caroline Vogl and seven other student mentors in guiding 32 elementary and middle school students through their first full-fledged robotics competition.

“Last year, the kids could get competitive about which teams of two could build their robots faster, but this year was the first time we pitted their robots against each other,” said Vogl, who described the competition as a sort of sumo wrestling match in which each robot would try to push another out of a ring, whose boundaries the robots recognized through light sensors. “What’s cool about having Dan here is that he designed the curriculum for both the basic and the advanced classes.”

“The robots that have succeeded have been the ones with good frames, low centers of gravity and ramps to push the others,” said Radion, who just completed his associate’s degree at Everett Community College and is heading to the University of Washington to major in computer engineering in the fall. “I was with this program for four years so I want to give back whatever I can. The mentors I had through this program encouraged me to go to college and go into engineering, and now I’m working at MicroGreen Polymers right here in Arlington.”

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