CSE High School Robot Programming Contest
Press Releases
High School Robot Programming Contest Brings Robots and Students to UTA
Last Saturday, February 3rd, 2007, the Nedderman Hall atrium was full of robots zipping around
corners, searching for golf balls, and stopping at blue lines. It was the 7th Annual High School
Robot Programming Contest - RoPro. Sponsored by the Computer Science and Engineering Department at
UTA (CSE@UTA) this annual recruiting and outreach event brings high school teams from around the
Metroplex to UTA to compete in beginning maze competitions where there is a "need for speed",
object finding competitions where robots look for pesky little red or black golf balls, and
advanced maze competitions where lines are the floor have to be treated just like solid walls.
The seventeen participating teams came from high schools including Arlington, Sam Houston, and
James Bowie from Arlington ISD, the Science and Engineering Magnet and the Talented and Gifted
Magnet from Dallas ISD and area home schools. Each team built and programmed autonomous Lego robots
for these challenges. Once the student pressed the start button, the robot was completely on its own,
trying to accomplish its task using the "smarts" the students had programmed into it. They were
great!
The fabulous teachers who work with these student teams use the RoPro event as a teaching tool to
practice concepts learned in class. The results are fun as well as instructive for the students.
This RoPro competition will also assist some of these students in their future. By participating in
RoPro this year any student team member who is accepted to UTA in the CSE dept will receive a $1000
scholarship. If their team won an award this year then they will receive a $2000 scholarship to
CSE@UTA. We currently have former RoPro competitors in our department and two of this year's
competitors have already contacted us about their future in CSE@UTA
For the 2007 CSE@UTA RoPro competition, the winning teams were:
|
School
|
Team Name
|
Competition
|
Award
|
| TECH Homeschool |
007 |
Beginning Maze |
First place |
| Science and Engineering Magnet |
SEM Stonecutters A |
Beginning Maze |
Second place |
| Sam Houston High School |
Ultralisk |
Beginning Maze |
Third place |
| TECH Homeschool |
Squirt |
Advanced Maze |
First place |
| Sam Houston High School |
Nuclear Terabyte |
Advanced Maze |
Second place |
| Science and Engineering Magnet |
SEM Stonecutters 1 |
Object Finding |
First place |
| Sam Houston High School |
Nuclear Terabyte |
Object Finding |
Second place |
TECH Homeschool |
Squirt |
Object Finding |
Third place |
Arlington High School |
Your Mom is a Robot |
Engineering Design |
Award of Merit |
TECH Homeschool |
Squirt |
Artistic Design |
Award of Merit |
Next year's RoPro competition will be held February 9th, 2008. If you know of a high school
that might be interested in participating in this free competition, have them contact Dr. Carter
Tiernan (tiernan AT cse.uta.edu) to get involved. More information about this event is available
at www.cse.uta.edu/Robots/.
|