Robofest
Newsletter,
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Contents:
(1) Additional
Robofest Contest Sites Confirmed for 2006
(2) First
Chapter of “Handy Cricket Robo Hacks” Available for Free Download
(3) RoboNexus Wrap-Up Report
(4) LTU Plans to offer Robotics Concentration in MET
(5)
Robofest Coach Registration System Upgrade
(6) Digital Animation and Video Editing Competition
added to Robofest for 2006!
(7) Video Submission 2006 Site
(8) Visit Robofest at the YES! Expo, October 26
at Ford Field
(9) Metro
(10) Friends
of Robofest Campaign Announces On Line Giving Form
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(1) Additional
Robofest Contest Sites Confirmed for 2006
Robofest is working on confirming 2006 Contest Site
Locations. The following new sites have
been confirmed as 2006 Contest Sites:
Hillside Middle School, Northville, Michigan, April 1
West Melbourne, Florida, Location TBD, April 1
Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
April 7
St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Houston, Texas, April 22
Erle Rivers High School, Milk River, Alberta, Canada,
April 29
We are still working to secure sites in several other
states and countries. We plan to have
all sites confirmed for our December registration. Additional sties that were announced in the
last newsletter include: Carman-Ainsworth
Junior High School, Flint, Michigan, April 22; Canton Charter Academy, Canton,
Michigan, April 29; Macomb Intermediate School District, Clinton Township,
Michigan, April 1; World Robofest 2006 Championships, Lawrence Technological
University, Southfield, Michigan, May 13.
We are working hard to expand to other states and
countries, if you or someone you know would be interested in hosting, please
have them contact Lori Birman [email protected]
for information. Being a Robofest
Contest Site provides great visibility for the hosting organization. It is an opportunity to showcase your
facility, staff, and students. We hope
you will consider being a part of the Robofest Team!
(2) First
Chapters of “Handy Cricket Robo Hacks” is Available for Free Download
Robofest Technical Advisory Committee Member, Don Wilcher,
is writing a book entitled “Handy Cricket Robo Hacks.” This book will have robo-gadget projects to
build with a resource CDROM. The project
can provide ideas or the exhibition portion of the Robofest contest. Mr. Wilcher plans to have the book manuscript
completed in January. In the meantime,
Don invites all Robofest participants to download the first chapter of the book
complimentary. Go to the following link
below and you will find the first two chapters posted on his website under the
Sci-Tech Projects section. The chapter titles are divided into two parts:
Talking Tonka Dump Truck Part 1 & 2.
Here is the link: http://www.family-science.net
(3) RoboNexus Wrap-Up Report
Dr. CJ Chung was a guest
speaker at the RoboNexus (http://www.robonexus.com
), the largest robotics event in the western hemisphere. The robotics
conference and expo was held at the San Jose convention center in the heart of
Silicon Valley in California, Oct. 6-9.
RoboNexus was a mammoth event with more than 10,000 people attending. Google and iRobot and many others were the
sponsors of the event. Dr. Chung talked about experiences learned from
organizing Robofest since its inception in 2000. Other guest speakers included Colin Angle, co-founder of iRobot Co., and Professor
Manuela Veloso from Carnegie Mellon, Rob Ambrose from NASA.
In the expo area, Robofest
had a display booth. Several hundred people stopped by the table, watched the DVD,
and picked up Lawrence Tech’s Robofest flyers and brochures. Amazingly, even a
few people had heard of Lawrence Tech, 13 people from all over the world signed
up to host Robofest in their schools or centers in the near future. We hope to announce these new contest sites
soon!
It was very surprising to
meet a Robofest family that flew from Michigan to San Jose to attend the
RoboNexus event. Please check out some of
the RoboNexus photos at http://ltu164.ltu.edu/~chung/photo/roboNexus/
(4) LTU Plans to offer Robotics Concentration in MET
Lawrence Technological
University is about to launch new autonomous robotics courses as a part of the Masters
of Educational Technology program. These
courses are proposed to start in Spring 2006. The
rationale of the robotics courses is to provide an opportunity for educators to
learn robotics technologies, to teach robotics in their classes, to be a
technical mentor of robotics teams, and to earn a masters degree in Educational
Technology and a technology (NP) endorsement. If you are interested in this
program, please contact [email protected]
(5) Robofest Coach Registration System Upgrade
We are currently improving
and testing the Robofest coach and team registration system. If you were a
registered coach, regardless whether you had actual teams or not, you will get
an email with your coach ID and other information. The test is scheduled
between Oct. 25 – 28. If you do not receive an email from us this week, and you
were a Robofest coach, please send us a message letting us know you did not
receive a registration test e-mail from us.
Please send your message to [email protected]
(6) Digital Animation and Video Editing Competition
added to Robofest for 2006!
As a pilot program, we plan
to include two new divisions in the Robofest 2006 Competition. One is a Digital Animation division where
participants will animate Robofest 2006 game competition. The Second division is digital video editing
and production where teams will record and submit a video journal of their team
while it was preparing to compete at Robofest.
(7) Video Submission 2006 Site
Last year Robofest added an
opportunity for teams who could not travel to a Robofest contest site to submit
video of their Exhibition performance.
This category was called “Video Submission only for Exhibitions” this
division provided an opportunity for teams to submit video of their Exhibition
performance. Next year we plan to
include a “Video Submission Category for Game Competition” teams who do not
have a regional competition site near them but would like to submit a video of
their team performing the missions.
Details on these division rules
will be announced when Robofest is officially kicked off.
(8) Visit Robofest at the YES! Expo, October 26
at Ford Field
Stop by and visit the Lawrence Technological
University booth at the YES! Expo (Youth and Engineering Science!) this Wednesday,
October 26 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
The YES! Expo will host over 70 exhibitors. YES! Expo tickets are available at no charge
to area students and chaperones.
Teachers are welcome to coordinate field trips to the event. The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30
p.m. and is sponsored by Michigan Tech. Robofest
will show its 2005 DVD and have 2006 information at the LTU booth. Please stop by and say hello. For additional information about the YES! Expo,
visit http://www.yes.mtu.edu
(9) The
Metro
The Metro Detroit Science Teachers Association
(MDSTA) will be holding its Fall Conference this Saturday, October 29, on the
Campus of Lawrence Technological University.
Robofest will be participating in two of the sessions during the MDSTA
event:
- Lori Birman will introduce
Robofest from 8:15am-9:15am.
- CJ Chung will introduce Laptop Robots for High School Students from
9:45am-10:45am
Robofest will also have a table in the Exposition
area which is in the Buell Management building.
Please stop by and say hello. For
more information about the MDSTA Event, please visit: http://mdsta.org
(10) Friends
of Robofest Campaign On Line Giving Form
Robofest has launched the Friends of Robofest Campaign
for individual tax deductible contributions to Robofest. Attached is a link for individual donors to
make a gift to Robofest via credit card (MasterCard, Visa, or Discover) or
electronic check. You may make an
on-line gift to Robofest by visiting the following link: https://www.applyweb.com/public/register?ltualum
You must specify Robofest at the gift recipient and
also specify your gift amount. The
on-line pledge form is encrypted with Secure Socket Layer technology to
guarantee transaction security.
All Robofest donations are tax deductible
contributions. Transactions must be processed by December 31st to
receive 2005 tax credit. Robofest Sponsorship
is important in our effort to keep Robofest a low-cost affordable contest for
everyone. We hope you will consider
supporting Robofest in our future Friends of Robofest campaign. We appreciate your support.
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CJ Chung,
Associate Professor, Robofest director
Lori Birman,
Robofest Coordinator
21000 W. Ten
Mile,
[email protected] www.robofest.net
(248)204-3504 Fax: (248)204-3518 Robotics Lab (248)204-3815