SA BEST Game Day is Saturday, October 24

Today, SA BEST volunteers will tear down the game field and move it to the main auditorium in the Greehey Convocation Center. During the past week, the game field has been installed on one of the basketball courts in the Auxiliary Gym at Greehey. Our intent was that the field would be available for teams to practice with their robots. This afternoon, we will move the field and set up all of the support areas (pit, display, check-in, etc.). The last of the oral presentations will be given this afternoon and evening.

Tomorrow, Game Day, we will perform final checkout of the field and all support, and finish checking in teams at 10 AM. That's the signal for the chaos to begin. If you're coming, you might want to bring some earplugs, because it can get noisy in the gym.

Demonstration Day at SA BEST

Sunday was the Demonstration Day for the teams in the SA BEST competition for 2009. Each team had to bring something that looked like a robot, even though incomplete, and an "Engineering Notebook" that described their concept and their work so far, as well as their methods. I'm going over the notebooks now, as one of the judges. They vary in quality, as would be expected. I have to have my review complete by noon today, so I can pass them back to the "Head Judge", Tom Deeter.

SA BEST kickoff

Today, San Antonio BEST Robotics held its 2009 kickoff. BEST is a robotics program for teenagers, mostly high schoolers. SA BEST provides parts to build a robot that plays a game. The game for 2009 was kept secret until today, when 30 school teams attended. Now they have six weeks to build their robots. The prizes range from small trophies to BIG scholarships. There's more to winning than building the best-performing robot. Teams must demonstrate good engineering practice, sportsmanship, and knowledge of their robot. They must also prepare an engineering notebook that documents their process, ideas, and test results. Grandparents are encouraged to attend these tournaments to see what today's young people can achieve. Warning: It's very noisy on game day.

For information about San Antonio BEST, see http://www.sabest.org