On Saturday, March 10, the Heskett Center hosted 2012 WSU Lego Mindstorms. The Wichita Professional section members helped in a variety of ways. Barb Davis and Cassie Schroeder with Amanda Smith (WSU student & course designer) and Beth Ann Welty from Spirit helped judge the course that the WSU SWE section built. Sara Campbell judged the “Spirit & Sportsmanship” category. Allison Wright and Michelle Boehm coached the Girl Scout team, Robo Troop, which competed in the competition. The theme of the competition this year was “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” and the WSU SWE course was “Save Toto!” The challenge of the SWE course was to go up & down ramps, make your way through the walls (forest) and then on up another ramp to rescue Toto by pushing him into a basket. If your robot didn’t follow Toto over the edge and into the basket, you earned the final 75 points.
The kids were all great. It is such an inspiration to watch them work and problem solve all day to make their robot perform well. There were two girls whose robot couldn’t make the first turn in the morning score 825 points by the end of the day.
It is also fun to see old friends. Eric Mead, Chief Judge and recipient of the 2011 WCES Engineering Service Award, got Allison Wright by presenting her with an engraved brick that said, “2011 WCES Young Engineer.” Dr Larry Whitman, our own Wizard of NXT, awarded Barbara Davis and 2 other judges the honor of “Mindstorms Fellow” and a clear engraved brick signifying 5 years or more of service.
The Outreach committee is looking for judges for the Shocker Mindstorms event on February 18 and March 10. This is a great event, pitting middle-school teams and their robots against a variety of courses. This year’s theme is: “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.” The course created by the WSU Collegiate SWE chapter is “Save Toto”.
This is lots of fun. Please consider volunteering for part of the time. Below are the dates and times.
Trial Day is February 18, 2012
Judge Training – 9:00am to 10:00am, WSU Heskett Center
Courses are open from 10:00am to 2:00pm, WSU Heskett Center
Challenge Day is March 10th, 2012
Apprentice Courses Open (Beginner Teams) from 9:00am to 2:00pm, WSU Hesket Center
Awards Ceremony for Beginner Teams from 3:00pm to 4:00pm, WSU Hubbard Hall Room 208
Professional Courses Open (Intermediate and Expert Teams) from 9:00am to 4:00pm, WSU Heskett Center
Awards Ceremony for Intermediate and Expert Teams from 5:00pm to 6:00pm, WSU Hubbard Hall Room 208
Let Barb Davis know if you can help with any of the activities.
We need SWE professional members as judges of the SWE course at the annual Shocker Mindstorms event. This challenge is for middle school students and is sponsored by the WSU College of Engineering and the College of Education, WSU Mindstorms
The dates are:
Trial Day: February 20, 2010, 10am to 2pm, Heskett Center (Judges need stay only 1-2 hours)
MINDSTORMS Challenge: March 6, 2010, 9am to 4pm, Heskett Center (Judges needed for all day)
This is a fun event that gives you an opportunity for seeing these young minds at work. We need at least 2 judges who can commit to both days. Judges attend a general briefing on trial day and then become familiar with their course. On challenge day, we keep order when runs are made and judge the actual attempts. The WSU SWE students will be there to oversee the course, we just have to judge.
Please contact Barbara Davis at barbara.davis@swe.org, if you are interested, or if you have any questions.
LEGO Mindstorms:  There are a couple of opportunities for those who are interested in helping out with this ongoing event.  (1)The WSU section will be building the course on Friday, October 30th from 3:30-? (you don’t have to take off work to come help, just come afterward) and Saturday, October 31st from 9am-2pm. Location will be confirmed later. The course is already designed but they could use some help building it.  (2) Volunteers are needed to judge the day of the competition. This event will be on Saturday, March 6th. Judges may also need to be there for the Trial Day which is Saturday, February 20th.  Judging just consists of watching the teams attempt our course & giving them points for completing tasks, based off the created point system.
WISE/DSI Breakfast Chat: SWE is having a breakfast chat with some of the girl participants of the Wallace Scholar competition. The students are looking for 1 or 2 professional members to talk to the participants.  The breakfast chat will be from approx. 8:30-9:30am on Friday, November 13th.
On Saturday, March 10, the Heskett Center hosted 2012 WSU Lego Mindstorms. The Wichita Professional section members helped in a variety of ways. Barb Davis and Cassie Schroeder with Amanda Smith (WSU student & course designer) and Beth Ann Welty from Spirit helped judge the course that the WSU SWE section built. Sara Campbell judged the “Spirit & Sportsmanship” category. Allison Wright and Michelle Boehm coached the Girl Scout team, Robo Troop, which competed in the competition.
The theme of the competition this year was “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” and the WSU SWE course was “Save Toto!” The challenge of the SWE course was to go up & down ramps, make your way through the walls (forest) and then on up another ramp to rescue Toto by pushing him into a basket. If your robot didn’t follow Toto over the edge and into the basket, you earned the final 75 points.
It is also fun to see old friends. Eric Mead, Chief Judge and recipient of the 2011 WCES Engineering Service Award, got Allison Wright by presenting her with an engraved brick that said, “2011 WCES Young Engineer.” Dr Larry Whitman, our own Wizard of NXT, awarded Barbara Davis and 2 other judges the honor of “Mindstorms Fellow” and a clear engraved brick signifying 5 years or more of service.