Grove City to bring on BEST robotics challenge

By Denise Dick

Staff report

grove city, pa.

Grove City College is sponsoring its inaugural BEST robotics competition for local middle and high school students this fall.

The competition features “Mall Day” and “Game Day” events Oct. 9 and Oct. 22-23 at the Ross Park Mall on McKnight Road, Pittsburgh, and Grove City College Arena in the Physical Learning Center, respectively.

Competition participants have been working with volunteer engineers from the community since early September to construct functioning robots.

Students can perform test runs on the actual field on “Mall Day” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

On “Game Day” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on campus, students will have several opportunities to compete in the simulation, with prizes awarded for the students’ engineering notebooks, oral presentations, displays and team spirit.

Winners of the competition will advance to Auburn, Ala., to compete against other regional winners.

The six-week Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology competition was free to contending participants and schools, with all materials donated by the College’s Wolverine Hub and funded by other local companies.

The Wolverine Hub is a local chapter of BEST headed by Dr. Mike Bright, chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering and professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

BEST was founded in 1993 to encourage students to pursue careers in engineering.

In fall 2009, 12,000 students representing 800 schools participated at 38 competition sights in 16 states.