The
Northern Plains BEST Robotics competition recently took place at NDSU. The competition featured 32 teams of more than 600 middle school and high school students from as far away as Connecticut. The competition aims to "inspire students to pursue careers in the STEM disciplines through participation in a sports-like, science and engineering-based robotics competition."
This year, students were tasked with creating a robot to be used in a simulated fire emergency. The robot was to rescue a victim, remove dangerous canisters from the vicinity, and put out the fire. In addition to creating and competing with the robot itself in a simulated emergency scenario, students also made sales pitches on how their robots could help first responders, drafted in-depth research journals, and constructed marketing booths to showcase their robots.
Some of HEI's staff volunteered at the event as judges. This event greatly depends on the work of volunteers, and HEI is proud to have helped with this year's competition!
