February 27, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University’s Department of Engineering hosted the eighth annua
l Kentucky Bluegrass LEGO Robotics Competition on Feb. 23.
WKU Engineering Honors Society students, led by society president Catie Gay, worked with Mechanical Engineering faculty member Kevin Schmaltz and Department of Engineering staff Ron Rizzo and Chris Moore to conduct the event at the McConnell Integrated Applications Laboratory in the Complex for Engineering and Biological Sciences.
Elementary and middle school teams were given the challenge of building an autonomous robot from LEGO Mindstorm kits to navigate a road and cave course as quickly and accurately as possible. This year, 160 students competed on 41 teams in the “Engineer-in-Training” division for younger teams and the “Professional Engineers” division for more experienced teams.
In the “Professional Engineers” division, Old Kentucky Home Middle School’s Mack Peterson finished first. In the “Engineer-in-Training” division, the Glasgow Christian Academy team of JT Russell, Josh Greer, Cody Bush, Destiny Childress, David Shircliff and Travis Whitlow finished first.
In addition to the students on teams, more than 150 coaches and parents attended the event. Since the competition kickoff in December, more than 600 students, coaches and parents have visited WKU to test their robots and attend preparation sessions offered by the engineering department.
Schools represented in the Feb. 23 competition included: Old Kentucky Home Middle, LaRue County Middle, Green County Middle, North Warren Elementary, Bristow Elementary, Cumberland Trace Elementary, Drakes Creek Middle, Warren East Middle, Monroe County Middle, Natcher Elementary, Moss Middle, Rockfield Elementary, Oakland Elementary, Old Union School, Glasgow Christian Academy, Plano Elementary, Richardsville Elementary, Lost River Elementary, Warren Elementary, Briarwood Elementary, Holy Trinity Elementary and Alvaton Elementary.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Kevin Schmaltz at (270) 745-8859.
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