Eight teams will be competing in the 23rd annual Heartland BEST Robotics competition at Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Alva campus on Saturday, Nov. 1, from 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. in Percefull Fieldhouse.
The high schools and middle schools competing include Alva Robotics, Arnett High School and middle school, Burlington High School, Elgin High School, Lawton Academy, MIGHT Community Development Team from Lawton, and Persimmon Creek Robotics, comprised of students from the Mutual, Sharon and Vici areas.
BEST co-director Dr. Tim Maharry, chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science department and professor of mathematics, who also serves as the head of sponsorship and finance and the BEST Award, said that the teams have been designing and building their robots over the past eight weeks. All teams start with an identical kit of parts. Teams score points by completing various tasks in the game field. This year’s game is “Factoids” and has an AI theme.
Each team will compete in six preliminary matches, with the top teams advancing to the finals. The top three winning teams from Heartland BEST will advance to the regional competition in Wichita, Kansas, on Dec. 6-7.
BEST stands for boosting engineering science and technology. BEST is a national robotics competition that started in 1993. Heartland BEST in Alva started in 2002.
Also serving as co-directors for Heartland BEST are Dr. Mary Riegel, professor of mathematics, who also serves as the game committee chair, and Dr. Jenny Sattler, chair of the Department of Natural Sciences and professor of physics, who also serves as the kit committee chair.
Others on the committee include other Northwestern faculty, Alva community members and the families of committee members, including Dr. Adam Alber, assistant professor of chemistry; Dr. Roxie James, chair of the English, Foreign Language and Humanities department and associate professor of English; Dr. Kennan Meeker, assistant professor of mathematics; Dr. Jason Wickham, professor of chemistry; Evan Vaverka, instructor of computer science; and Dave Riegel, Sandy Riegel, Dena Riegel, and Kaylynn Samples.
The public is welcome to attend and cheer on the teams.
More information is available from Maharry at (580) 327-8583 or tjmaharry@nwosu.edu or at www.www.nwosu.edu/school-of-arts-and-sciences/natural-science/heartland-best.
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