February 15, 2001
Rival robots go head-to-head in practice meet for national competition during University of Washington Robotics Festival
WHO: University of Washington engineering students and students from Tacoma’s Bellarmine Preparatory School, and three other area high school teams who have built robots for a national competition.
WHAT: A pre-competition festival to showcase robotic talent.
WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 17, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
WHERE: The Bank of America Pavilion Annex, north of Bank of America Arena and south of the Intramural Activities Building, at the UW.
DETAILS: The Rainier Roboteers, a team that combines students from the UW’s electrical engineering department and Bellarmine and advisers from the Seattle Robotics Society, will host a robotics festival to test their latest creation prior to entering it in regional and national competitions. Teams from three other area high schools – The International School in Bellevue, Henry Foss in Tacoma and University Prep in Seattle – have also been invited to compete. Robots will perform a variety of tasks, including maneuvering around obstacles, dunking balls into goals, balancing on a teetering bridge and rescuing one another. Just days after the festival, teams will ship their robots to regional and national competitions sponsored by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST. Last year, the UW team won a bronze medal in regional competition and placed among the top 10 percent of teams nationally.
Smaller robots from the Seattle Robotics Society and other UW groups will also be on hand at the festival to perform between matches. Exhibitions include robotic sumo wrestling, soccer and navigating mazes.
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For more information, contact Alex Mamishev, UW assistant professor of electrical engineering, at (206) 221-5729 or mamishev@ee.washington.edu. UW electrical engineering student and team captain Paul Stuart can be contacted at pgstuart@u.washington.edu.
For details about the FIRST competition see www.usfirst.org. An electronic flier announcing the festival is at www.ee.washington.edu/techsite/robotics under the “press release” heading.
