Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: NEWS

Media Credit: Chrislynn Mabul Circle of Science's coach, Wila Rollerson (center), discussed with her team how they were going to succesfully move all the pieces at the top of the platform down to their box at the bottom at Research Park on Sept. 15. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Chrislynn Mabul Liberty Christian's, Tim Kelley (left), and Circle of Science's, Aaron Fletcher (right), studied the playing field where teams compete with their robot and to travel back and forth to the top to grab and carry different objects down to their teams box at the bottom. [Click to enlarge]

Students from more than 27 high schools came to Research Park on Saturday with one thing in mind - robots.
NT started its Denton County Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology robotics competition Saturday with its annual Kick Off Day. During the event, the students received supplies, rules of the game, an orientation to DC BEST and an opportunity to observe the game field.
"If you take a look at the U.S. today, we are short major numbers of engineers," said Bill Stamm, volunteer organizer for the competition. "This is to stimulate kids in science and math and get them excited about possibly taking up a career in the field."
DC BEST is a nonprofit organization that holds robotics contests. BEST began in Sherman Texas when two engineers for Texas Instruments wanted to get high schoolers involved with engineering. The first competition in North Texas was held in 1993 with 14 schools participating and has grown into a national organization with more than 550 schools participating.
During the course of the day, participating students went through an intense orientation session where they were made aware of the consequences of cheating in the competition, the rules and regulations that would be applied to all robots and the consequences of any violations or infractions.
Each team was given its materials, which included items like PVC piping, sheets of plywood and a returnable kit that would make its robot operational through remote control.
Each school was to build a robot similar to the Mars Rover. The task of the competition is to build a machine that is capable of transporting various game pieces such as blocks and fuel cells into designated point bins. A time limit is placed on each robot and points are allotted based on which items are returned and the robot's efficiency.
"It gives me something to do," said Daniel Farmer, a Krum High School junior who placed fourth in the competition last year. "I love robotics. The idea of making something from nothing and getting to compete and taking this thing we built and seeing if its better than everyone else's just takes the cake. The whole field of programming; its really great that we're allowed competitions like these [to] help kids like me arouse our imaginations."
The teams will return to NT with their finished robots to compete in the Mars simulation Oct 27. in the Super Pit.

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