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NEW BRITAIN – (August 20, 2008)
-The state’s “BEST” Robotics
competition is scheduled to take
place Sunday, October 19 at
Central Connecticut State
University. A kick-off event
for the student competition will
be held in Copernicus Hall on
the CCSU campus on Saturday,
September 6
BEST is an acronym for “Boosting
Engineering, Science and
Technology,” while BEST
Robotics, Inc., the contest’s
governing body is a non-profit,
volunteer organization whose
mission is to inspire students
to pursue careers in engineering
and science though participation
in a sports-like, science and
engineering based robotics
competition.
The competitions began in 1993
with just 14 schools. Today,
over 600 schools and more than
10,000 students participate
annually. The organization,
which seeks to “help build a
pipeline of future engineers,”
says 50 percent of students
surveyed reported their
experience in the competition
has influenced their plans after
high school.
“Just Plane Crazy” is the theme
of the 2008 competition with the
host CCSU School of Engineering
and Technology, receiving major
sponsorship funding from the
Pratt & Whitney Division of
United Technologies. Pratt &
Whitney is a world leader in the
design, manufacture and service
of aircraft engines, industrial
gas turbines and space
propulsion systems. Lowes of
Newington is also a sponsor of
the event.
The School of Engineering and
Technology will provide invited
high and middle schools with
programmatic details. It also
purchases and distributes
consumable and returnable
robotic kits for each
participating school, and
distributes the annual challenge
to participants. Winning teams
from local competition sites
such as CCSU advance to regional
championship events. There are
no costs for participating
secondary schools or students.
The competition is expected to
draw wide-scale
media coverage.
More information about this
year’s BEST competition can be
found at:
http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/.
Questions can be directed to
event director Ravindra Thamma
at
thammarav@ccsu.edu.
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