BEST Robotics

BEST, "Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology", is a national 6-week robotics competition in the United States held each fall, designed to help interest middle school and high school students in possible engineering careers.

History

While preparing for Engineering Day at the Texas Instruments facility in Sherman, Texas, engineers Ted Mahler and Steve Marum along with several students watched a video featuring the work Woodie Flowers was doing with his students at MIT, and wondered why they could not extend this idea to high school students.

The BEST competition began in 1993 in Sherman, Texas with one small hub featuring 14 schools (one from San Antonio) and 221 students.

tructure

Currently, BEST has hubs across the country. There are approximately 10,000 students, 800+ teams, with 35 hubs in 15 states, and 3 regionals. Any school may start a team, and there is no cost to participate. The hubs rely on local financial support from businesses and universities. Anyone can start a new hub serving a minimum of eight teams. On average, the cost for the first year of running a hub with 24 teams is $28,000.

Based on the task for the year, each team is given a parts list and kit of parts which they use to construct a robot. This kit includes parts such as wood and PVC, along with the RC components necessary to control the robot. However, not every item on the parts list is supplied by BEST and must be obtained by the team. Items not on the list are not allowed, and the robot will be checked prior to competition for illegal items. Teams are given six weeks from kickoff to design and build the robot and all other facets of the competition.

The final robot must fit in a 2 foot cube at the beginning of each round of competition. The robot must also weigh under 24 pounds. Once a round has started, the robot can expand beyond the 2 foot cube via retractable arms, etc.

The game task is different each year, but historically the robot has often needed an arm with different grabbing abilities. One year the game centered on team work to try and get students to work together. The winning teams from local competition sites, or hubs, advance to regional championship sites after the local competition has ended.

Competition

BEST Robotics includes two elements: a robot competition, in which teams attempt to score as many points as possible in head-to-head competition, and the BEST award. The BEST award is more complex, encompassing such tasks as writing a high-quality technical notebook or engineering journal (which will be used to judge who will be a "wild card" in the semi-finals. That is, if their robot doesn't do well, they will still make it to the semi-finals, and have a chance to win), designing a website, an interview, delivering an oral presentation to a panel of judges, and creating a table display booth.

BEST encourages its teams to follow an engineering process, similar to the engineering process used in many engineering jobs. This gives students a taste of what they may have to do in future engineering jobs. It also hopes to get students excited about the field of engineering and more likely to go into it. Although BEST has not been able to keep up with alumni to see if BEST has had an effect on their career path, similar robotics competitions, like FIRST, show that activities like BEST do have a higher rate of students going into science and engineering related fields.

Another challenge teams involved in BEST face is limited materials--the primary construction materials used in BEST are simple and easily formed. These materials include PVC pipe, string, plywood, a limited quantity of sheet metal, and a bit of aluminum, as well as miscellaneous hardware, 2 large motors and 2 small motors, and the electronics necessary to run these motors and the 3 provided servos. At the beginning of competition, the robot is checked over to make sure that no illegal parts are used. Originally, old printers were also part of the BEST kit and printer parts could be used on the machine. The limited materials make students think much more creatively with what they are given.

Past Year's Challenges

* 2008 Just Plane Crazy
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/2007_Story_Line 2007] 2021: A Robot Odyssey
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Laundry_Quandary_2006 2006] Laundry Quandary
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Mission_to_Hubble_2005 2005] Mission to Hubble
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/BEST_Fever_2004 2004] BEST Fever
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Transfusion_Confusion_2003 2003] Transfusion Confusion
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Warp_X_2002 2002] Warp X
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/RAD_to_the_CORE_2001 2001] RAD to the CORE
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Pandemonium_in_the_Smithsonian_2000 2000] Pandemonium in the Smithsonian
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Rocket_Race_The_Alien_Escape_1999 1999] Rocket Race: The Alien Escape
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Toxic_Troubles_1998 1998] Toxic Troubles
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Dynamite_Duel_1997 1997] Dynamite Duel
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Block_N_Load_1996 1996] Block N' Load
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/TOTALly_aweSUM_1995 1995] TOTALly aweSUM
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/Bumble_Rumble_1994 1994] Bumble Rumble
* [http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/Game/PVC_Insanity_1993 1993] PVC Insanity

External links

* [http://www.bestinc.org BEST Robotics, Inc. (BRI)] – The Parent Orginiazation

Regional Competitions

* [http://www.uafortsmith.edu/FTBEST Frontier Trails BEST] , which is held at the University of Arkansas, contains hubs from the west of the Mississippi River that are not in Texas.
* [http://www.southsbest.org/ South's BEST] , which is held at Auburn University, contains hubs from east of the Mississippi River.
* [http://www.depts.ttu.edu/texasbest/ Texas BEST] , which was previously held at Texas Tech University and will now be held at North Texas, contains all hubs from Texas.

Hub websites

"Not a complete list of hubs, as not all hubs have websites. Also note that the cities given as hub locations only denote the location of the actual competition. Each hub draws schools from a specific geographic region (e.g. specific counties) -- any school in that region is eligible to compete in the said hubs."

* [http://www.alabamabest.org Alabama BEST] – Auburn, AL hub website
* [http://citcd.uc.edu/%7Ebest/index.htm Bearcat BEST] – Cincinnati, OH hub website
* [http://www.slu.edu/billikenbest Billiken BEST] – St. Louis, MO hub website
* [http://www.brazosbest.org Brazos BEST] – College Station, TX hub website
* [http://www.capitol-best.org Capitol BEST] – Austin, TX hub website
* [http://www.coastalbendbest.org Coastal Bend BEST] – Corpus Christi, TX hub website
* [http://www.cocobest.org CoCo BEST] – Collin County, TX (McKinney, TX) hub website
* [http://www.cowtownbest.org Cowtown BEST] – Fort Worth, TX hub website
* [http://www.dallas-best.org Dallas BEST] – Dallas, TX hub website
* [http://www.etec.unt.edu/dcbest/home.htm Denton County BEST] – Denton, TX hub website
* [http://uwf.edu/ece/EmeraldCoastBEST/ Emerald Coast Best] – Pensacola, FL hub website
* [http://mcweb.woodstock.edu/~best Five Star BEST] – North Houston, TX hub website
* [http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/flabestrobotics Florida BEST] – Ft. Lauderdale, FL hub website
* [http://www.georgiabest.org Georgia BEST Robotics] – Marietta, GA hub website
* [http://www.nwosu.edu/BEST HeartLand BEST] – Alva, OK hub website
* [http://www.illinoisbest.org/illinoisbest Illinois BEST] – Chicago hub website
* [http://www.jubileebest.org Jubilee BEST] – Mobile, AL hub website
* [http://www.kansasbest.org Kansas BEST] – Wichita, KS hub website
* [http://www.ece.nmsu.edu/nm_best New Mexico BEST] Las Cruces, NM hub website (hub serves entire state of NM and west TX (El Paso area)
* [http://www.ntbest.org North Texas BEST] – serving the Texoma area (NT BEST was the founding hub)
* [http://best.uark.edu Northwest Arkansas BEST] – Fayetteville, AR hub website
* [http://www.okcbest.org OKBEST] Oklahoma City, OK hub website
* [http://www.uafortsmith.edu/BEST River Valley BEST] – Fort Smith, AR hub website
* [http://www.sabest.org San Antonio BEST] – San Antonio, TX hub website
* [http://www.scbest.org Space City BEST] – Metro. Houston, TX hub website
* [http://www.tennesseevalleybest.org Tennessee Valley BEST] Huntsville, AL hub website
* [http://www.ee.ttu.edu/wt-best West Texas BEST] Lubbock, TX hub website