Omaha metro-area contests test students’ robotic skills – Omaha World-Herald

Bellevue West senior Hunter Rausch picked up a blue and silver three-wheeled robot from a table and set it on the floor. He turned to classmate Deanna Shane.

Theoretically, if I push the middle button, it should go here, Rausch said, pointing one foot ahead of where the robot sat. If I push it twice, it should go another foot.

Rausch and Shane, both 18, are members of the high schools robotics club, one of 96 robotics teams that will be competing today in the CEENBoT Showcase at the Nebraska Robotics Expo.

The expo, held at the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum near Ashland, is open to elementary, middle and high schools across the state.

Competitors in this category will take part in six competitions related to this years theme, CEENBoT Carnival.

CEENBoT Robotics Showcase Director Alisa Gilmore said the expo is funded with a National Science Foundation grant to help teachers get their students involved in science, technology, engineering and math.

Robots, she said, are used as a platform to get students engaged through hands-on activities.

Gilmore, an associate professor of practice at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering, said the program also works with students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Students in the College of Engineering helped area teachers create robots and demonstrate how they can be taken into classrooms. Students in the College of Education developed the curriculum.

The competition is an opportunity for students to show off the work they have put in during the academic year, Gilmore said.

Bellevue West will send three teams to the expo. Club sponsor Dan Parkison has spent the last month recreating the challenges so his students can have a feel for the course. Rausch and Shane both will compete this weekend.

Other events at the expo include presentation, a navigation course called Pokebot Go, a midway maze and a carnival cart challenge in which robots must retrieve items from a maze.

The FIRST Lego League 2016 Animal Allies Challenge will host another 48 teams at its Saturday event. Students attending this competition will explore how to make interactions between humans and animals better. The two competitions, CEENBoT Showcase and FIRST Lego League, are not related, but will both take place at the SAC Museum.

Robots will be roaming in Omaha as well at the Heartland Regional Robotics Championship, sponsored by Create, at Omaha North High School.

Students from 100 middle and high school teams are competing in computer-paired alliances that conclude Saturday evening. Teams are paired to test not only their technical skills and understanding of technology but their ability to collaborate.

Carol Kujawa, program support for Create, said the competition is for teams that have performed successfully earlier in the season. It is an opportunity for teams to qualify for the U.S. Open Robotics Championship, April 4 to 8 at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, or the VEX Robotics World Championship, April 19-25 in Louisville, Kentucky.

becca.mann@owh.com,402-444-3185

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Omaha metro-area contests test students' robotic skills - Omaha World-Herald