Annual Robotics Challenge Promotes Alternative Energy
LENOX – Energy choices and their environmental impact will be the focus of “Power Puzzle,” the eighth annual Berkshire Robotics Challenge, scheduled Saturday, March 15, at the Duffin Theater at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School. The event is free and open to the public.A total of 186 students – ages 8 to 14 – comprising 23 teams from all over Berkshire County will use programmable robots to complete a variety of hypothetical missions that explore how our energy choices affect the world in which we live. The Berkshire Applied Technology Council sponsors the event, with major underwriting support from SABIC Innovative Plastics and Crane & Company. It is based on a challenge created by FIRST LEGO League, an innovative program that actively engages students in science and technology.
Each year, a new challenge is issued that is designed to emulate a current scientific, engineering or technological challenge. “Power Puzzle” invites students to consider how personal energy choices to heat our homes, fuel our cars, charge our cell phones, power our computers, or even download music to our iPods can impact the environment, economy, and life around the globe. Which resources should we use and why? Through hypothetical missions, students explore how energy production and consumption choices affect the planet and our quality of life today, tomorrow, and for future generations.
Over the course of several weeks, participating teams have been designing, building, programming and testing autonomous robots to respond to programmed computer commands and fulfill Challenge requirements utilizing the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention System. Each team will score points based on its robot’s ability to complete various missions involving energy applications, such as installing a roof solar panel, utilizing a hydrogen car, deploying a hydro-dam and erecting a wind turbine.
Teams will arrive between 7:45 and 8 a.m., followed by a one-hour inspection and practice period. Participants will then gather in the auditorium to hear opening comments and watch a video created by Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort that documents the installation of Zephyr, the resort’s 155-ton, 386-foot wind turbine, during the summer of 2007.
The challenge will be competed in three rounds between 9:45 a.m. and 11:57 a.m., with the top eight point-scorers advancing to the Great Eight Playoff at 12:15 p.m. An awards ceremony – including honors for Sportsmanship & Team Spirit, Best Mechanical Design, Most Innovative Design and Best Programming – is scheduled for 1 p.m.
The Berkshire Applied Technology Council is a consortium of industry and education leaders that is working with area high schools, Berkshire Community College and adult workers to enhance the level of technical expertise – including cutting-edge math, science, computer, and communication skills – in the county’s work force. The Berkshire Robotics Challenge is one of many efforts being utilized to fire the interest and enthusiasm of students, from the youngest to the most accomplished.
David Owen of Domeware Data Systems and Bob Gove will be inspectors for the event, with Denise Jezak and Roger Moyer serving as judges. Gove, retired Craneville School Principal Bruce Collina, Principal Bob Vaughan of Morris Elementary School, Elizabeth Roberts of Monument Mountain Regional High School and Richard Rowe of Crane & Company will serve as referees. Cheryl Tripp-Cleveland of WBRK radio in Pittsfield and Dick Lindsay of Lee Hardware will serve as masters of ceremonies.
Members of the event’s planning committee are Doug Crane of Crane & Co., Dorothy Curtiss of General Dynamics, attorney Lee Flournoy, Denise Johns of BATC and Berkshire Community College, Bernie Klem of Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America and John Wood of SABIC Innovative Plastics.
