Some of Hatch Valley High School’s (HVHS) best future engineers and technology students will “Bet the Farm” at New Mexico State University (NMSU), Saturday, October 22. They will go there to take their robotic creations and enter them into competition at the NM BEST Robotics 2016 competition. BEST stands for Boosting Engineering Science and Technology.
Some of Hatch Valley High School’s (HVHS) best future engineers and technology students will “Bet the Farm” at New Mexico State University (NMSU), Saturday, October 22. They will go there to take their robotic creations and enter them into competition at the NM BEST Robotics 2016 competition. BEST stands for Boosting Engineering Science and Technology. The HVHS BEST Robotic team will pit their remote-controlled robot against others from across the state for the chance to move on up to the national level competition. The event is sponsored by BEST Robotics, a non-profit and volunteer-based company. This year’s theme is Bet The Farm. Teams will design and build remote-controlled robots that will be capable of picking corn, tomatoes, and lettuce and then place them into the proper receptacles.
Since 2001 NMSU has worked with BEST Robotics to host a competition for the state of New Mexico and El Paso, Texas region. Every fall, teams from middle and high schools arrive on campus for the annual NM BEST kick-off event. There they receive a kit (consumables and returnables) to design and build remote-controlled robots to accomplish a specific task. During the six-week competition, the teams work to design and build prototypes, participating in a mock competition during Mall-Day, October 15, where they can test their design and function before entering the competition October 22, for the regional playoff and championship.
The Hatch BEST team had the opportunity to interact with and receive hands-on assistance from owners, staff, programmers, and engineers from Emerging Technology Ventures (ETV) an Alamogordo based company.
The Hatch team has been hard at work building a robot for this year’s competition. Most of the team graduated last May, so they are starting fresh with some eager new engineers, programmers, and designers. They have high hopes, both for the competition this year and on into their futures. They can go on to join a growing and innovative industry spanning a wide range of endeavors. Robots are everywhere, from drones and recreational gaming robots to industrial robots performing functions in factories building everything from cars to furniture. Good Luck Hatch Best Robotics!
From the Hatch Sentinel dated October 14th, 2016, By Jim Shiley, Click here for original story.