GCC logo BEST ROBOTICS

 

Wolverine BEST Hub 2011 Competition

ANSYS, Inc.Grove City College is pleased to host the Wolverine BEST Hub (sponsored by ANSYS, Inc. and the Buhl Foundation).  The hub director is Dr. Mike Bright - mwbright@gcc.edu  or  724-450-4095.

 

Kick-Off Day - Saturday, September 10, 2011

Teachers and students gathered in Ketler Auditorium of the Pew Fine Arts Center to learn about this years game, Bugs!, and receive the materials to build their robots.  Teams were enthusiastic and asked a lot of great questions.  Many were already hard at work on this year's design.

 

In the afternoon we offered several training sessions.  Thanks to Chris Anderson, Alan Hough, Cindi McCall, Ethan Anastos and Nicole Walzer for leading sessions.  There was training on programming the robot, competing for the BEST award, using the Mathworks Simulink product (thanks to Sandeep Hiremath for his webinar) and an open discussion on all things BEST and Bugs!

 

Mall Day - Saturday, October 8, 2011

Mall Day was 10 AM - 4 PM at Ross Park Mall in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. Most teams brought functioning robots and had a chance to practice on the actual game field.  There was also a lot corporate espionage going on as teams checked out creative designs on other 'bots.  The West Middlesex scissors lift and Punxsutawney spiked wheels drew a lot of attention.

 

Game Day - Friday/Saturday, October 21/22, 2011

Wow!  Game Day 2011 was a fantastic event.  The team exhibits were lively, the marketing presentations were professionally done, the engineering notebooks were very descriptive, and the spirit and sportsmanship shook the arena foundations.  The robot competition was intense and frequently brought the crowd to its feet.  Thanks to Dr. Dave Valentine for his excellent announcing and to Dr. Tim Mohr's referee crew for fast and fair results.  There were 20 great robots and teams in attendance, but in the end, only a few could claim the following awards:

 

1st BEST Award - Cornerstone Christian Prep

2nd BEST Award - Mercer High School

3rd BEST Award - Punxsutawney High School

1st Robot Competition - DuBois Area High School

2nd Robot Competition - Cornerstone Christian Prep

3rd Robot Competition - Eden Christian Academy

4th Robot Competition - Glenoak High School

1st Team Exhibit - Mercer High School

1st Marketing Presentation - Punxsutawney High School

1st Engineering Notebook - West Middlesex High School

1st Spirit & Sportsmanship - Cornerstone Christian Prep

Founder's Award for Creative Design - DuBois Area High School

Most Robust Robot - Family Instructors of the North Suburbs

BEST Middle School - Ft. LeBoeuf Middle School

 

Participating Teams

Clarion Area High School

Cornerstone Christian Prep School

DuBois High School

Eden Christian Academy

Family Instructors of the North Suburbs

Ft. LeBoeuf Middle School

George Junior High School

Glenoak High School, OH

Grove City High School

Harbor Creek High School

Hickory High School

Jamestown High School

Mason High School, OH

Mercer High School

Punxsutawney High School

Reynolds High School

Saegertown High School

Slippery Rock High School

Slippery Rock Middle School

West Middlesex High School

 

Sponsors

The Wolverine BEST competition is offered to schools at no cost to the school.  Grove City College sponsors the venues and provides much of the people power to make this happen.  Materials to build the robots, materials to build the fields and operational costs are provided through the generous support of the following organizations:

 

Premier Sponsors - ANSYS, Inc. and the Buhl Foundation

Platinum Sponsor - Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc.

 

 

National Sponsors

We want to acknowledge national sponsors of BEST Robotics - Texas Instruments, MathWorks, Vex, Igus, SolidWorks, HSMWorks, Intelitek, Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy and InspirTech.