LTU Hosts Robofest State Championships April 27
SOUTHFIELD -- Sixty-eight teams from 28 communities in Michigan will compete in the state regional championship round of Robofest on Saturday, April 27, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Ridler Field House, Lawrence Technological University, 21000 West 10 Mile Road, Southfield. Admission and parking are free.
Robofest is a competition of autonomous robots -- computer-programmed to act independently and not remote-controlled – that encourages students to have fun while learning principles of science, technology, engineering, and math, known as the STEM subjects. Teams compete in the junior division (grades 5-9) or senior division (grades 9-12), using a variety of computer programming languages.
LTU Professor CJ Chung started Robofest in 2000. This year it has attracted more than 1,600 students from eight states (Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Minnesota, Florida, Hawaii, California and Louisiana) and five other countries (Canada, Mexico, Korea, China and India).
"To earn the right to compete in the Michigan championship round is not easy. These teams had to win in the 12 qualifying competitions we held in the state," Chung said.
Teams competing in the Robofest Michigan Regional Championship are from Adrian, Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, Battle Creek, Berkley, Bloomfield Hills, Canton, Cedar Springs, Clawson, Dearborn, Detroit, Farmington Hills, Ida, Livonia, Macomb Township, Northville, Port Huron, Riley Center, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak, St. Clair, Sterling Heights, Superior Township, Troy, Waterford, Westland, Whitmore Lake and Ypsilanti.
Winners in the regional competition will advance to the Robofest 2013 World Championship at LTU on Saturday, May 18. (Go to www.robofest.net.)
This year's game mission, SRCC (search, rescue, cleanup, and collect data) is to search for and rescue people trapped in a black box from a tower, clean up white toxic boxes from the contaminated area, and measure the size of the contaminated area in square millimeters.
In addition to the game, there will be a science fair-style exhibition competition, which will demonstrate the imagination and creativity of the students through robotics.
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. Bloomberg Businessweek lists Lawrence Tech among the nation's top 20 percent of universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review.
