Cousin Joey's Robotics Tournament.
The 20th Season Autodesk Oregon Regional Robotics Competition kicked off this weekend and what seemed like a fun way to spend the day turned into an adventure in a high-tech world of extremely talented teens. The pit was filled to the brim with intelligent and promising youngsters and the smell of the body odor wafted through the air as geeks of all shapes and sizes feverishly worked on their complex robots. The ideals of camaraderie and cooperation stand tall throughout this competition. Unlike any other sport, robotics competitions value gracious professionalism and hold a high ethics code which encourages these kids to actually care about their opponent. They share tools, parts, and even earn points for cooperation and good manners. I was shocked! It was an amazing day and I was truly relieved to know that these kids will be an key force in shaping our futures. And not to mention, the Robots are cool!!!!
The teams are responsible for designing and engineering a robot as well as marketing and promoting the team. With sponsors like Boeing, Intel, NASA, and GM, we are not talking small fries here, this is the big time. Competitors have the opportunity to advance to the world finals in St. Louis.
Just making a robot preform simple functions requires an enormous amount of programming, design, engineering, patience and luck. These talented youngster had robots with capabilities that were imperative for competition. Picking up inner tubes and placing them on hangers 6-10 feet in the air while defending against the opposing robot team and offensive maneuvering is no easy task but all these robots were able to preform under pressure.
Really this is a cool thing to see, even if none of the robots went rogue and began a killing spree throughout the Colosseum. Good Times had by all.
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