The Soft Pitch

Avnet Tech Games drew nearly 200 students this weekend to compete for scholarships in nine different games – a record number of students participated representing colleges and universities from across Arizona — there was even a team from University of Arizona in Tucson that trekked in for the event!.

Winners were announced this morning via press release and photos from the event can be found on Flickr.

My personal favorite – and of course for many of the on-lookers – was the robot obstacle race.  Under the direction of faculty advisor Bassam Matar, the Chandler-Gilbert team won again this year.  Their robot was one of the few that made it around the entire obstacle course and the only one to successfully to transport a red rubber ball around the 5-ft. course.  Robot races sound much easier than they are, apparently, as most of the robots couldn’t make it around the course at all.  The students had to use a robot kit with about a gazzillion Lego parts and some electronics to design and build their own robot.  Each team came up with their own design (they didn’t have to use all the parts) and had some interesting twists on how to capture the ball.  One team built a pair of pincer arms like on a scorpion (must be the desert influence) and another a little scooper arm like on a skip loader (didn’t work at all).  The winning team had a little trap contraption that descended on the ball (sort of like from the game Mouse Trap if you’re as old as I and can remember that game) and kept it from rolling away while the robot pushed the ball around the course. It was the only design to successfully grab the ball – earning it a great cheer from the audience.

All the teams deserve recognition and gained valuable experience in trying to solve real-world problems – well, okay, so maybe moving a rubber ball around a table doesn’t sound real-world.  But maybe some day, those students will be designing robot arms to perform delicate surgery or better yet, do the dishes.

Rudy Navarro from Chandler Gilbert CC puts the final touches on the winning robot.

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