Roboticon 2016 – Registration Now Open!

Roboticon is back for the 15^th year at College Royal at the University of Guelph!

The School of Computer Science would like to invite you to Roboticon 2015. This year’s robot-building and programming challenge will be occurring on Saturday, March 19th & Sunday, March 20th, 2016 at the University of Guelph.

Roboticon is an annual event run in partnership with SOCIS and the School of Computer Science. It is an exciting opportunity for high school students to learn more about the field of Computer Science by designing and building LEGO Mindstorms robots to complete a series of challenges designed by our undergraduate students. Under strict rules and time limits, teams of students are challenged to build and program robots by sharpening teamwork skills and performing set tasks against a field of competitors. First Place winners receive a brand new LEGO Mindstorms EV3.

Our First Place winners will receive a brand new LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit and we will be giving away Second and Third Place LEGO gift card prizes!

The event provides young high school students with the opportunity for practical application and demonstration of math, programming and engineering skills, as well as promoting teamwork, collaboration and sportsmanship. Last year, we had almost 20 teams from high schools across Ontario that participated in the robotics challenge, where they demonstrated what they had learned to an audience that included University staff and faculty, families, friends and members of the Guelph community.

This event is open to all high school students! Roboticon is a completely free event to attend, The School of Computer Science will loan and mail out LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kits to teams that register. All meals will be provided.

Get a team and a teacher together to register your team! The School of Computer Science will loan and mail out LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Kits to teams that register.

For those who haven’t competed before, the format of the competition is as follows:

1. Teams of up to four high-school students will build and program robots using LEGO Mindstorms kits to complete two challenges.
2. The first challenge is available NOW on our website, http://socis.ca/roboticon/ so students have the option to get a head start. Upon arrival, the students will have time to build and test their designs on our practice track. There will be two heats for this challenge, with build-time in between for students to tweak their designs.
3. The second challenge will be presented to the competitors at the end of the first day of the competition, with two heats occurring on the second day. Winners will be announced, with the first place team receiving a brand new LEGO Mindstorms EV3.
4. If your team needs to borrow a LEGO EV3 Mindstorms for the competition, we will be lending out a number of kits on a first come, first serve basis. We will mail out the kits as coaches register their teams for the event.

If you wish to register a team, please send an email to: liaison@socs.uoguelph.ca with the following information:

• Coach/mentor/primary contact and preferred email address
• School or homeschool group you represent
• Team name
• Team member names (these can be filled in closer to the date of the competition, as long as we have a final number about two weeks before the competition)
• Mailing address if you need to borrow a LEGO Mindstorms kit

Come explore the interesting world of hardware building and software programming. Be part of the action and register now! If you want to learn more about this event, e-mail us at liaison@socs.uoguelph.ca