The 2012 Getting Excited About Robotics (G.E.A.R.) Competition is being conducted by the Interactive Technology Experience Center (iTEC) in the UTSA College of Engineering on March 31, 2012.
LEGO robot photo from Mario Ferrari's Personal Web Pages
The domestic robotics competition “Power Up” is designed to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in students, by teaching and guiding them to build and also program the robots.
UTSA’s G.E.A.R. is an annual robotics event for students in the third grade through eighth. It provides hands-on, interactive activities that help the students to develop technical skills and improve qualities of self-confidence, leadership, communication and critical thinking.
This year, over 1,600 people, including 119 teams representing around 50 schools in the
San Antonio areas are taking part in the event. The students will be using LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics kits for building and programming robots. The 2012 event is titled “Power Up”. A fictitious company named Energy Inc., has been created for the event. Employees of the company – the competitors – will be working with various forms of energy, ranging from hydroelectric and wind energy to fossil fuels. The robots are to be built for performing specific jobs.
The dean of UTSA College of Engineering, Mauli Agrawal, stated that the competition will arouse student’s interest in STEM.
Time Warner Cable, Lewis Energy, Halliburton, BP and Valero Energy are sponsoring the competition. The competition is being held at UTSA’s Convocation Center from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on March 31.