October 23, 2001

13 Teams to Compete

in WKU Robotic Contest

Bowling Green, Ky. - It won't be "BattleBots" or "Robot Wars," but 13 high school teams will compete in a robotics contest Sunday in Bowling Green.

Western Kentucky University's Engineering Department again is sponsoring the Kentucky BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) robotics competition. The teams will compete from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Warren Central High School's gymnasium.

The Kentucky winner and 19 others will advance to national competition at Texas A&M University next month.

This year's contest scenario is "RAD to the Core!" in which a remote-controlled device runs on an overhead track, removes fuel rods from a nuclear reactor and places them in a containment vessel. The teams were given contest rules and materials on Sept. 15 and had six weeks to design and build their robots.

The robotics competition like Western's engineering program stresses hands-on, project-based learning, according to Stacy Wilson, assistant professor.

This year's competitors include Barren County, Bowling Green, Butler County, East Jessamine, Edmonson County, Franklin-Simpson, Greenwood, Logan County, Metcalfe County, Owensboro, Warren East and Warren Central.