OKBEST Robotics Competition

Hello!

Its time again to start school. For us here at Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology in Oklahoma (OKBEST), that means it time to start sign ups for the up coming year season of OKBEST. If you're receiving this email, but have never heard of us, please read on.

OKBEST (http://www.okcbest.org) is the local group of a national robotics competition called BEST inc (http://www.bestinc.org). We are based at Oklahoma Christian university Our goal is to encourage middle school and high school aged students to seek careers in engineering, science, and technology. We accomplish our mission thru a six week robot building competition. The competition starts with a kick off event (almost always the first Saturday after labor day in September) at Oklahoma Christian University, Judd theater. At this event, we hand out a box of building building materials, a fabulous remote control system, encouragement, free dough nuts, and a challenge. Your school does not pay us to participate. If you do well enough in the contest, we pay you to go represent us!.

For the next six weeks, the student teams work together to build a robot that will meeting the challenge we set before them. At the four week (usually the first weekend in October), OKBEST holds a practice event that is open to the public and to all teams. This event is usually held in at Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City. At the end of the six weeks, we hold a contest day at the Eagles Nest at Oklahoma City University. Here all the teams come together and play for various awards - Robot competition, Robot design, T-shirt design, most robust, and engineering notebook.. OKBEST will then send the top robot competition and the robot design notebook the national competition in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Probably the best way to describe OKBEST robot building competition is a science fair meeting a sports event. The best part of our competition is that you the school are not charged anything - you just have to sign a note to return certain very expensive parts to us.

If you'd seriously like to participate, please find us on the www @ http://www.okcbest.org. Additional information can be found at http://www.bestinc.org.

right now, we have slots open, so if your ready, please sign up on our web site! If you like more information, please email me @ madrob100@yahoo.com or give me a call @ 405 210 7831.

Thanks!

John Robertson

OKBEST co-chairman

Oklahoma Robotics Summit 2007

The Oklahoma Robotics Summit is scheduled for September 15th at the Wes Watkins Center at OSU in Stillwater. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. and the meeting begins at 10:00 a.m., lunch will be provided and there is no cost for registration, but please RSVP to Jack Sellers with your headcount for attendance by September 10th. (sellersj@swbell.net)

Keynote speaker will be former astronaut, John Herrington, first Native American Astronaut (Chickasaw) from Wetumka, Oklahoma. Mr Chrys Griffing, Area Coordinator for FIRST Lego League in Amarillo will also share information about the Amarillo FLL Competition. Several breakout sessions will be offered throughout the day to help teams with all aspects of the competition!

Both rookie and experienced teams will benefit from the Summit. Teachers, students, mentors, parents and sponsors are all welcome, just be sure and include all in headcount for lunch in an email to Jack by September 10th. Full agenda can be found on pre-engineering website at www.okpreengineering.org

University of Oklahoma College of Engineering Open House

The OU College of Engineering will be hosting the 95th annual Engineering Open House this fall. The date has been set for Friday, November 2nd, 2007. The college will be sharing displays from various engineering student organizations as well as tours of the College of Engineering facilities and labs. They will be offering both design and scholastic competitions covering basic math and science skills to spark interest in engineering and other related fields. If you have any questions, please contact Andrew Hickam via e-mail at Andrew.L.Hickam-1@ou.edu.

Oklahoma State Offers Scholarships

Dr. Virgil Nichols recently shared information concerning two new OSU Scholarships relevant to pre-engineering students.

· The Pre-Engineering Scholarship is for students nominated through their local pre-engineering programs. The scholarship is $1000/year ($500/semester) for 2 years. Recipients must be enrolled as a full time student each semester in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, earn 28 credit hours toward a CEAT degree program, and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or above. Criteria will be posted on www.okpreengineering.org with a Spring, 2008 due date.

· The FIRST Robotics Scholarship is for students who are registered participants in a FIRST Robotics competition. The scholarship is for $2000/year ($1000/semester) for 2 years. Recipients must be enrolled as a full time student each semester in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, earn 28 credit hours toward a CEAT degree program, and maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or above. Criteria will be posted on www.okpreengineering.org with a Spring, 2008 due date.

Dr. Nichols recommends that any senior pre-engineering student interested in Oklahoma State University submit their OSU application by Thanksgiving to ensure their eligibility for scholarship opportunities.

Oklahoma State University Hosts Oklahoma PLTW STI

George Collington, Manager, College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Continuing Education, Oklahoma State University reports that OSU hosted the first Oklahoma PLTW STI. OSU offered training for five courses: Digital Electronics, Introduction to Engineering Design, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Engineering Design and Development, and Gateway to Technology. They enrolled 50 instructors, with over ½ of those coming from outside Oklahoma. George spoke about the quality of teachers he has found in the Oklahoma pre-engineering programs. He thanked Francis Tuttle and Carver MS for loaning equipment for the courses. OSU will be finalizing a Master for Engineering Education and coursework from the STI will count for college credit.

Mr Collington mentioned that the OSU faculty is willing to work with all Oklahoma pre-engineering teachers concerning curriculum and instructional strategies. He noted that the six engineering faculty trained for PLTW are the “cream of the crop” in the College of Engineering. He made a special request to encourage Oklahoma pre-engineering teachers to apply to become PLTW Master Teachers. Each of the five Master Teachers working with the OSU faculty this past summer, were from outside the state. Applications are due in November and can be found on the PLTW website www.pltw.org.