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Texas BEST Robotics Competition Brings Statewide Teams of Students to UNT
November 2010, Denton, TX
Angela Nelson
On Nov. 19 and 20, students from across Texas and New Mexico will gather at the University of North Texas (UNT) to compete in Texas BEST, the BEST Robotics, Inc. regional robotics championship for high schools and middle schools.
For the third year, UNT is hosting the event, which allows the College of Engineering the opportunity not only to help influence young men and women to consider a STEM-related career but also to help bring increased awareness of the College to prospective students. About 1,200 students competed at UNT during last year’s event, held Dec. 4-5, 2009.
“We welcome the visiting students to UNT and I congratulate them for participating in Texas BEST. We hope that the participating students enjoy the experience and discover that math, science and engineering are fun and rewarding. BEST robotics competitions, like the College of Engineering and UNT in general, foster the pursuit of math, science and engineering, and show in a small scale the contributions that these disciplines make on a daily basis,” said Dr. Costas Tsatsoulis, dean of the College of Engineering.
BEST -- Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology -- seeks to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math through participation in a fun, sports-like competition. The robots, which are built and operated by students, compete to solve a set of tasks established by organizers. As the students take their robots through their paces, pep squads and parents cheer on their teams.
This year’s theme is Total Recall, “which is unique as it involves more man/machine interaction than previous events,” said Tom Fitzmaurice, Texas BEST regional director. “Also, Total Recall is an extremely relevant game as it involves the concepts of Six Sigma, a widely used business strategy that seeks to improve quality by identifying and removing the causes of defects.”
BEST features two parallel competitions:
• A robotics game, which is based upon an annual theme with eight teams competing at once in a series of three-minute, round-robin matches.
• The BEST Award, which is presented to the team that best embodies the concept of Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology. Elements include a project summary notebook, oral presentation, exhibit display, T-shirt design, and spirit and sportsmanship.
302 teams compete at local hubs this month, with winners advancing to the regional competition at UNT. Students will arrive Nov. 19 to register, set up, practice, participate in the oral presentation portion of the competition (taking place at Discovery Park), and take tours of the College of Engineering and the main campus. The main competition portion will take place Nov. 20, at the UNT Coliseum.
Sponsors for this year’s event include Texas Instruments, Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, UNT and the Denton Conventions and Visitors Bureau.
UNT News Service Article: UNT to host regional robotics competition