Botball Robotics Tournament - Sat. April 10th

NEWS ADVISORY               

Contact:   Jim Esterbrooks (858) 292-3719, cell (619) 987-6956

                  Dave Massey cell (619) 517-4288

Botball Robotics Tournament at Cuyamaca College

 One-day Robotics Competition for Middle, High School Students.

WHO:     14 San Diego County schools, along with 15 other school teams from Southern California; Local teams include the all-girls team “BEWiSE” squad,  Lincoln High, Millenial Tech Middle, Oceanside High, El Cajon Valley High, Escondido High, Christian High, The Preuss School, High Tech High, Torrey Pines High,    River Valley Charter High, Palm Middle School (Lemon Grove), Islamic Day Shool, and a school from Mexico City.

WHAT:     A one-day robotics event that matches middle and high school teams, using robots they’ve built, in a competition based on national science education standards.

In this year's game, a natural disaster has caused oil to contaminate Botville's Lake Čapek, and Bot Guy is helping with the cleanup. He has contained the oil with booms, and begun rescuing the wildlife of the lake and Karel Island at its center. 

Training for the students is supported by San Diego Science Alliance Robotic Education Council.  Teams will have three practice sessions in the morning to earn seeding position for the double-elimination competition. The program is coordinated by the San Diego Science Alliance (www.sdsa.org),  the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (http://www.botball.org/ ),  and Cuyamaca College             (http://www.cuyamaca.edu/).

WHEN:  Saturday April 10 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  Best viewing is from 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. during the double elimination portion of the tournament.

WHERE:   Cuyamaca Community College Gymnasium

                   900 Rancho San Diego Pkwy, El Cajon, 92019

WHY:   Robotics is a rapidly growing and valuable global industry. Students competing in robotics today will be the programmers and engineers developing new robotic technology in the next decade.  More information on Botball and robotics education in San Diego can be found at http://sdsa.org/programs/robotics  

Additional Information

The Botball season begins each year in September with the optional Research and Design Website Challenge where teams are asked to research a topic in robotics and to develop a solution to a related design task. In January and February, the Botball Educator Workshops provide team leaders and mentors with technology training and introduce the details of that year's game. Then, after a build period of about 7 weeks, students bring their robots to their regional tournament.

Teams received their reusable robotics kit at the January workshop along with software and documentation. They also received detailed information regarding the current year's game. Participants have used their robotics kit to build and program a demonstration robot at the workshop.

A number of volunteers from industry, universities, and community colleges have volunteered to mentor teams with programming and engineering advice.  However the final products are the work of students only and no mentors or coaches are allowed in the pit area during the competition.

CLICK HERE for flyer.