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(Wolfville,
NS) - Young robot builders will have the chance to
test their skills at two competitions being held at Acadia
University on November 25. The site will be Acadia’s War Memorial
Gymnasium and the competitions will run from 1 until 8 p.m. These
competitions feature affordable, easy to build and fun to program
LEGO MINDSTORMS™ robots. No prior knowledge of robots or computer
programming is necessary.
The 1st Annual Acadia
FIRST LEGO League tournament is an international program for young
people aged 9-14 that combines hands-on robotics with a sports
competition atmosphere. FIRST International defines the competition
which last year was played in 31 countries by 7,400 teams.
The theme for this
year’s competition is NanoQuest and teams of 4-10
players must search the web, visit libraries and complete research
assignments in addition to building their robots. Teams must first
register through FIRST at its website
http://register4fll.com and pay the $180 registration fee. NXT
robot kits and Field Setup kits can then be ordered for delivery in
early September. Acadia’s Jodrey School of Computer Science has
funds available to help teams defray their costs and grant
applications are available on the competition website
http://iitrl.acadiau.ca/rpc/.
Acadia’s 2nd Annual
Robot Programming competition is open to four-person high school
teams ranging in age from 14-18. This event builds on the success of
last year’s competition won by a team from Avon View High School in
Windsor, NS. Teams are asked to build robots from either the LEGO
RCX or NXT robot kits and the challenge is to program them to
autonomously perform various tasks within a specific time period.
Teams are asked to explain their robot and then prove its
credentials in a specially designed arena.
“Youth robotics is
turning children in Canada onto computer science, engineering and
mathematics while exposing them to team work and creative problem
solving,” says Dr. Danny Silver, Jodrey School of Computer Science
professor and organizer of the competitions. “There is so much more
to computer science than just learning how to write programs. This
type of event is a great way for young people to learn about these
other aspects and to discover their abilities to design, construct
and use information technology. I know the students who attended
last year’s event had a great time and many will be returning to
Acadia’s campus this year.”
More information about
both competitions is available by following the links on Acadia’s
homepage www.acadiau.ca as well
as the competition site
http://iitrl.acadiau.ca/rpc/.
Acadia University, in
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, has long been recognized as one of Canada’s
premier undergraduate institutions. With its nationally and
internationally recognized research initiatives, small class sizes
and technology-rich teaching and learning environment, Acadia offers
students an experience that includes academic achievement combined
with personal growth and development. For more information about
Acadia, visit our website at
http://www.acadiau.ca.
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