UMaine to Host Middle, High School Robotics Competition
Contact: Ryan Foley, ryan.t.foley@umit.maine.edu; Aimee Dolloff, (207) 581-3777
ORONO, Maine – The University of Maine Black Bear Robotics Club will host VEX, a robotics competition for middle and high school students, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 27.
Opening ceremonies will begin at 9:30 a.m. at UMaine’s Donald P. Corbett Building in room 100 where Gov. John Baldacci and UMaine President Robert Kennedy will address students.
The goal of the event is to have some friendly competition between students from around the state and New England while getting a chance to experience real world engineering and applying the math and science skills they learn in school.
The VEX Robotics Competition was piloted two years ago when only one official event was held. There now are more than 2,000 teams from 20 countries competing in more than 150 tournaments worldwide.
The UMaine event is being hosted by the robotics club and its founder, mechanical engineering student Ryan Foley. Foley started the university’s robotics club in 2006.
Among other projects and activities, the group has created a remote-controlled T-shirt launching robot that can hold eight shirts at once and fire them in succession.
“We are hoping to use it at UMaine athletic events next fall,” says Foley. “Our first live event with the launcher was a 60-team Lego league robotics competition held last December at the Augusta Civic Center. We managed to fire the shirts from center court up into the back rows of the main hall.”
They’re now working to upgrade the machine so it can handle the abuse of driving around outside on bumpy and uneven ground so it also could be used for outdoor events.
Those participating in Saturday’s event, some with multiple teams, will include:
Crowther Homeschool, Oakham, Massachusetts
Cape Elizabeth Middle School, Cape Elizabeth, Maine (3 teams)
Greely High School, Cumberland, Maine (2 teams)
Portland Arts and Technology High School, Portland, Maine (3 teams)
Sanford Regional Vocational Center, Sanford, Maine
Maine School of Science and Mathematics, Limestone, Maine (2 teams)
Yarmouth High School, Yarmouth, Maine
Jesse Remington High School, Candia, New Hampshire
United Technologies Center, Bangor, Maine
John Bapst Memorial High School, Bangor, Maine
Jay High School, Jay, Maine (4 teams)
Catherine McAuley High School, Portland, Maine