Students battle for the best "Bot"

The regional Botball robotic competition was held at the Science Museum Oklahoma Saturday.

Sunday, March 2nd 2008, 12:59 am

By: News 9


By Jennifer Pierce, NEWS 9

High school and middle school students from the region battled for the top "bot" today.

The regional Botball robotic competition was held at the Science Museum Oklahoma.

Botball is the sport of science.

Local middle school and high school students have invested their time and minds programming and building the perfect robot to showcase in this Botball compeition.

"We've been working really hard and some days we stayed at school until 8 at night working on the Bot," contestant Supriya Sridhar said. "We've got our Botgirl and we're gonna beat them."

The robots aren't controlled by a remote, so anything can happen.

"We have to program them and then just run them," Sridhar said.

Watching their bots in action can be a knuckle biter.

Teams get points if cups are knocked off the table or by how many orange or green balls their robot collects. They can also lose points; even a small flaw in design can cost them.

"Because if you're even an inch or an eighth of a centimeter off, it will ruin the whole thing," Sridhar said.

Botball judges are never far as they keep a close eye on the robot's moves.

"We're looking for how they built the objects and how well they get them to the specific locations," Judge Wayne Jones said.

All of this precision prepares these students for the future.

"This gets girls, boys and everybody that might be considering engineering in the future it gives them an opportunity to find out what it's all about," Botball Coach Charlie Bevers said.

Regardless if they win or lose, every student at the Botball contest walks away with an educational experience.

The competition involves science, math and teamwork.

Yukon's Southwest Covenant High School won the overall competition.

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