Finding the

1
Finding the Right Robot Competition Targeting
Non-Engineering Undergraduates

• Susan Eileen Fox
• Macalester College

2
Motivating questions

• Why do we hold robot contests?
• How do we match our goals to the contest
  activities?
• How can we, as a community, share good ideas more
  effectively?

3
Macalester Robot Day
4
Goals for the Contest

• Create a fun extracurricular activity
• Raise the profile of AI and robotics
• Work with students, encourage future research
  collaborators
• Engage students with concepts from robotics and AI

5
Outcomes

• Create a fun extracurricular activity
• Raise the profile of AI and robotics
• Work with students, encourage future research
  collaborators (2006)
• Engage students with concepts from robotics and
  AI

6
What Are My Options?

• World-class competitions Robocup, AUVSI
• Undergraduate engineering competitions Jerry
  Sanders Creative Design, Micro Mouse
• K-12 and Hobbyist competitions Botball, ChiBot
• A few great models Bob Avanzato _at_ Penn State
  Abington, some presented here
• TONS of contests how can we find models to fit
  our goals

7
Robot Contest Repository

• A searchable repository of information about
  robot competitions/exhibitions
• Goals of contest
• Target audience
• Possible tasks
• How-to information

8
Conclusions

• Robot contests are fun, and can be valuable to
  students
• Creating contests from scratch is a lot of work
  best shared among a community
• Acknowledge and support the wide range of goals
  and participants!