Seven-state robotics competition heads to UAFS

story submitted by the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith

Fort Smith will host 40 teams from seven states Dec. 3-5 for the 2009 Frontier Trails BEST Regional Robotics Competition, sponsored by the city of Fort Smith and the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.
 
Teams representing 10 local hub competitions in Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota will participate in competition activities, which will take place at the Fort Smith Convention Center and at UAFS. Teams in the regional competition are advancing from hub competitions held earlier in the fall. (Link here for the report on that event.)
 
Activities will begin at 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, when teams will meet for registration and set up their display area. Judges will meet from 6-9 p.m. at the Convention Center to judge teams’ notebook entries.
 
Friday, Dec. 4, will include team photos and team presentations. Table displays will be judged from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will be open for public viewing from 1-3 p.m. Friday’s activities will also include a girl’s luncheon with professionals from the engineering field and a social mixer for team members that night.
 
The robotics portion of the competition begins at 7:45 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, at the Stubblefield Center at UAFS. Doors are open to the public starting at 7:30 a.m. Competition rounds begin at 8 a.m. with two fields of four-team match-ups. Awards presentations and championship photos will take place at 5 p.m.
 
The robotics competitions are held nationwide under the BEST heading, which stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology. Theme for this year’s competition is “High Octane,” focusing on renewable energy sources. Each team designs, manufactures and operates a remote-controlled robot, which is then used to complete the game objective of collecting and employing “molecules” and essential resources to complete a series of chain reactions. Points are awarded based on completion of the tasks.
 
Teams are also judged on a number of areas in addition to the robot’s performance. Other judging areas include a project summary notebook, table display and interviews, oral presentation, team Web page, T-shirt design, and spirit and sportsmanship, as well as several robot design awards, with points given in the various categories. Separate top awards are given to teams with the highest scores in the robotics competition, as well as the BEST Award, which goes to the top overall team.
 
Doing well in every category is crucial to a good all-around performance at the competition, said John Martini, assistant professor at UAFS and director of the competition. He also adds that the key to this year’s competition is strategy, with every team approaching the problem in a different way.
 
“It will not be about scoring the most points, but how well you manage the game strategy to acquire the most valuable inventory,” he said. “The students will have to not only program their own robot to complete the unique task, but they will also have to interact with the game field BRAIN [robot controller]. More than ever before, the team must all be involved to be successful.”
 
The hubs and schools competing in this year’s Frontier Trails BEST competition are:
• Bison BEST of Fargo, N.D.: Breckenridge High School, Breckenridge, Minn.; Climax-Shelly School, Climax, Minn.; Watertown High School, Watertown, S.D.; West Fargo STEM Middle School, West Fargo, N.D.

• Crowley’s Ridge BEST of Jonesboro: Buffalo Island Central, Leachville; Hillcrest High School, Strawberry; Mid-South Community College, West Memphis; West Memphis Christian School, West Memphis.

• Golden Lions BEST of Pine Bluff: Little Rock Central High School of Little Rock, Ridgway Christian School of Pine Bluff; Watson Chapel High School of Pine Bluff.

• Heartland BEST of Alva, Okla.: Fairview High School, Fairview, Okla.; Lawton Academy of Arts and Sciences, Lawton, Okla.; Noble High School, Noble, Okla.; Payne County Christian Home Educators, Stillwater, Okla.; Shattuck High School, Shattuck, Okla.

• Hot Springs BEST: Arkadelphia High School, Arkadelphia; Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, Hot Springs; Bauxite High School, Bauxite; Poyen High School, Poyen.

• Kansas BEST of Wichita, Kan.: Ambassadors for Christ Academy, Bentonville; Campus High School, Wichita, Kan.; Circle High School, Towanda, Kan.; Wichita Home School, Wichita, Kan.

• Little Rock BEST: Benton High School, Benton; Bryant High School, Bryant; J.A. Fair Systems Magnet High School, Little Rock; Pulaski Heights Middle School, Little Rock.

• Northark BEST of Harrison: Conway High School, Conway, Mo.; Heartland Home Schools, Warrensburg, Mo.; Lebanon High School, Lebanon, Mo.; Lewis and Clark Middle School, Jefferson City, Mo.

• OK Best of Oklahoma City: Hidden Valley Academy Homeschool, McLoud, Okla.; Indiahoma Jr. High School, Indiahoma, Okla.; OKC Homeschool, Edmond, Okla.; Tulsa Engineering Academy at Memorial, Tulsa, Okla.

• River Valley BEST of Fort Smith: Chaffin Jr. High, Fort Smith; J.D. Leftwich High School, Magazine; Metro Homeschool, Blue Springs, Mo.; Western Arkansas Technical Center, Fort Smith.