WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. NOTE: Best times to view the robots in action are between 10 a.m. and noon or between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Awards will be handed out between 3:30 and 4 p.m.
WHERE: In the Glass Pavilion, Levering Hall, on The Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md.
WHO: More than 100 middle and high school students, mainly from Baltimore City Public Schools, will compete in a VEX Robotics qualifying competition, in which student-made devices will score points by placing doughnut-size rings atop posts and by hanging from ladder rungs. Students will compete in teams, generally made up of three to five young people. (A complete list of participating Baltimore schools is posted below.) Johns Hopkins faculty members and students will help supervise the contest, along with volunteers from Northrop Grumman, the event’s financial sponsor.
WHAT: Students from six Baltimore City middle schools, five Baltimore City high schools and from Delaware County Christian School in Pennsylvania have been building moving devices using VEX Robotics educational products. Each robot must be no larger than 18 inches by 18 inches by 18 inches. At this local tournament, 24 teams from these schools will compete to be one of the four that proceed to the 2011 VEX World Championship, to be held in April at Walt Disney World in Florida. To determine the local winners, each robot on Saturday will participate in four or five matches staged within two competition fields in the Glass Pavilion.
WHY: The event is being hosted by the Center for Educational Outreach at Johns Hopkins’ Whiting School of Engineering. The center’s mission is to encourage more middle school and high school students to pursue science, technology, engineering and math education and careers.
SUPERVISOR FOR THE EVENT: The tournament director is Su Kim. Her weekday office phone is (410) 516-4180. To reach her on the day of the event, her cell phone number is (443) 670-2323.
More information about the competition can be found at this Web site:
http://robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/johns-hopkins-vex-round-up-programming-tune-up-and-scrimmage.html
Competition rules can be viewed here:
http://www.vexforum.com/wiki/index.php/Round_Up
Videos of earlier VEX Robotics contest at other locations can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/v/whbb3BQqA8c&hl=en&fs=1
http://www.youtube.com/v/Xku7QzWtWEQ&hl=en&fs=1
Participating Baltimore City Schools
(Some schools will send more than one team)
Middle schools:
Friendship Preparatory Academy at Calverton
Highlandtown Elementary Middle School
Arundel Elementary Middle School
Empowerment Academy
Nathan A. Pitts-Ashburton Elementary/Middle
Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy
High schools:
Dunbar/Patterson (Combined Team)
Western High School
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
Independence School
MEDIA CONTACT: Phil Sneiderman
(443) 287-9960
prs@jhu.edu
