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August 24, 2007
Calhoun to Host BEST
(Boosting Engineering Science And Technology) Robotics Competition
Over 1000 middle and high school students, teachers and parents representing 18 schools from across north Alabama and Southern Tennessee will descend on the campus of Calhoun Community College on Saturday, August 25, 2007, to officially kick-off the Tennessee Valley (TVB) BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) robotics competition. Presented by Auburn University and Calhoun, the competition kicks off on Saturday at 10:00 am in Calhoun’s Kelley Gym.
Calhoun has been selected as one of three sites around the state to host the competition. During Saturday’s kick-off event, teams from the 18 competing schools will receive their kits of equipment and materials for building their robots as well as see the unveiling of this year’s playing field, which is kept a secret until Kick Off Day. This year’s game is called “2021: A Robot Odyssey” and is based upon NASA’s Mars Rover Project.
Kits for building the competition robots consist of plywood and a box filled with items such as PVC pipe, screws and other hardware, an irrigation valve cover, piano wire, an aluminum paint grid, a bicycle inner tube, and a micro-energy chain system. Teams have six weeks to design a functioning machine that can perform certain specific tasks in three minutes during the actual competition, scheduled for Saturday, October 6 at Calhoun.
According to local competition coordinator Dr. Sue Mitchell, a member of Calhoun’s Computer Information Systems faculty, the BEST competition has been described as being like a basketball game, chess match and science fair all rolled into one day, with cheerleaders, mascots, pep bands, and wildly cheering adults and kids mixed in.
“There is no entry fee for schools and no limit to the number of students who may participate,” said Mitchell. “All equipment and materials used to build and run the robots are provided by Toyota Manufacturing, which has been the program’s sponsor since it began in 2003,” she added.
“We started the BEST program at Auburn in 2001 to help address the critical shortage of engineers and scientists the U.S. is now facing,” says George Blanks, Director of K-12 Engineering Outreach for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. “Alabama, like other states, is simply not educating enough engineers to fill jobs that will be open as the baby boomer generation retires. In addition, many new technology-based industries are locating in the state. To ensure economic prosperity into the future, the state must grow its technologically literate workforce.
“Industry sees BEST as an ideal workforce development program because in the process of building their robot, students learn to identify and analyze design problems, brainstorm solutions for them, and build and test their designs, all in a team-building setting. They also learn that this process is a lot of fun. That’s the kind of workforce industry needs: people who understand technology and know how to use it to solve problems,” Blanks added.
Austin High School in Decatur has been fielding a BEST team since 2002. Susan Haddock, math teacher and the team sponsor, has seen the best come out in her students as a result of the competition. “In the past five years, more than 30 students from our robotics team have gone on to enroll in engineering fields of study. When they entered college, they knew they’d selected the correct field of study for them not because someone told them they would be a good engineer, but because they’d been involved in BEST.” Other area schools scheduled to participate in this year’s competition include Albertville City (Boaz); Athens Bible School; Bob Jones High School (Madison); Decatur High School; Gadsden High School; Holly Pond High School; Homewood High School (Hoover); Hoover Freshman Center; Hoover High School; Mountain Brook Junior High (Birmingham); NCLC Robotics (Huntsville); Oak Mountain High School (Birmingham); Priceville High School; Riverside Christian Academy (Fayetteville, TN); Spain Park High School (Birmingham); Sparkman High School (Madison); and Vestavia Hills High School (Alabaster).
Those interested can learn more about BEST by going to www.bestinc.org. Schools interested in participating and industries wanting to help mentor a team should contact George Blanks at 334/844-5759 or blankgw@eng.auburn.edu or Sue Mitchell at 256/306-2655 or sue@calhoun.edu
Coverage of this release:
- Students flock to Calhoun robotics event, The Decatur Daily, Sunday, August 26, 2007 issue, p. B5
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Janet Kincherlow-Martin
Director of Public Relations
(256) 306-2561
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