Teen-built robots overtake Lipscomb's Allen Arena on Oct. 21
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What could possibly make the daily drudgery of laundry an exciting adventure? How about a homemade robot, a pep squad and a healthy dose of competition?
That will be the formula at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, when eight teams of middle- and high-school students from across Tennessee gather in Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena to debut their remote-controlled robots at the state’s first ever Music City BEST Robotics Inc. competition, sponsored by Lipscomb’s Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering.
This year the BEST engineers have asked students to take on the “Laundry Quandary,” designing a robot that removes wet clothes from a laundry basket, hangs them on the line, then removes dry clothes and places them in the basket.
Sound simple? Maybe not for a plywood and PVC robot built by teen-agers from a kit of common parts. But when BEST coordinators asked Tennessee’s students, “Are you ready to tumble?” eight teams answered, “You bet!”
- Blackman High School, Murfreesboro;
- Craigmont Middle School, Memphis;
- David Lipscomb Campus Schools, Nashville;
- John Overton High School, Nashville;
- MaFadden Middle School, Murfreesboro;
- Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School, Nashville;
- Oak Ridge High School, Oak Ridge; and
- West End Middle School, Nashville.
In addition to the robot engineers, students are also recruited for the marketing side of the project: to create a display booth, compile a notebook, design the aesthetics of the robot, design team T-shirts, write a press release or design a logo.
“It’s not really about robotics, even though the kids think it is,” said George Blanks, vice president of the BEST board of directors and director of K-12 outreach for Auburn University, a long-time BEST sponsor. “Really they learn about problem-solving, teamwork, leadership and consensus development. It’s teaching kids not just the engineering process, but how to solve a problem.”
The robot that earns the most points wins, but the students’ machines also compete for a bevy of other awards, such as Most Photogenic, Most Robust, Most Elegant, the BEST Award, and the Blood, Guts and Duct Tape Award for the team with few points, but lots of guts and spirit.
“We decided to bring the BEST competition to Tennessee because it’s a program that not only teaches students skills they can use for a lifetime, but it does it in a fun, interactive way,” said Ben Hutchinson, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences, which includes the school of engineering.
“The program is unusual among student engineering programs because it actually requires the students themselves to design and build the robots, and it involves students in a variety of ways from designing the robots to organizing a pep rally before the competition,” Hutchinson said. “It is also free to the schools, which allows many schools to participate who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.”
This fall, 675 schools are expected to participate across the nation, representing 11,000 students. The top team in the Music City competition will proceed to the South’s BEST competition in Auburn, Ala., in December, when more than 40 teams duke it out for top honors in the region.
“On game day, it’s like a Star Trek convention,” Blanks said. “They bring pep bands and cheerleaders and mascots. We make money on game day just selling earplugs.”Lipscomb plans to make the BEST competition an annual event, with hopes of signing up 24 schools next year, Hutchinson said.