The NDSU College of Engineering is scheduled to host the Bison BEST Robotics Competition Friday, Oct. 31, and Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Shelly Ellig Indoor Track and Field Facility on the NDSU campus. This is the eighth year NDSU has hosted the event.
BEST, which stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology, offers hands-on, real-world, engineering-based experience to middle and high school students. The mission of BEST Robotics is to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, known as STEM, through participation in a sports-like science and engineering-based robotics competition.
A total of 20 schools are competing this year. Six weeks ago, each school received an identical kit of equipment and parts and a set of game rules. Their challenge is to design a vehicle capable of transporting and maneuvering wind turbines of extreme length and weight to an assembly site without negatively affecting America’s transportation system. The vehicle will construct the wind turbines once it delivers the components to an assembly site.
A live stream of the event will be available at clrobotics.com by clicking on the button labeled “Click Here to Watch the Competition Live.”
Each team has designed and built their robot, and will try to outperform other teams’ robots. The event consists of two parallel competitions. The first is a robotics game in which four teams compete at once in a series of three-minute matches. The robotics portion of the competition takes place on Saturday.
The other competition is for the BEST Award, which includes the delivery of a marketing presentation, design of a team exhibit and a spirit and sportsmanship component. The majority of the BEST Award categories are judged on Friday.
Engineers and other technical professionals from local industries served as mentors for the teams.
NDSU, for the third year, also is scheduled to host the Northern Plains BEST Robotics regional championship Dec. 4-6 at the Fargo Civic Center. It is one of four regional championship event sites in the country and will feature the 36 top teams from seven BEST Robotics competition hub events in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
For more information about the competition, contact Nancy Rossland at 701-231-7994 or nancy.rossland@ndsu.edu or visit www.ndsu.edu/coe/k_12_outreach/best_robotics.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.
