You may have seen reports of different robotic competitions on the news. Here in the Valley we follow four different competitions. These include: First LEGO League,  Skills Canada Robots and Sumobots, VEX Robotics. There are a variety of other competitions. All of these different events can be a lot of fun and they can be used to provide an organized way to develop skills and challenge oneself. We have also learned, from the students we work with, that they are also a great place to find new ideas and ways of doing things and to meet other people who share common interests.

FIRST LEGO LEAGUE  

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a comprehensive program involving robotic and engineering challenges for students from Primary Grades to the end of High School. One element of this is the First LEGO LEAGUE which focuses on students in grades 4-8. The new Body Forward challenge will be released in September 2010. Check these links out to learn more about FIRST:

• First LEGO League
• First LEGO League: Body Forward - preview of the 2010 challenge / summary with videos
• First LEGO League: Smart Move - the 2009 challenge / summary with videos
• First LEGO League British Columbia
• First LEGO League Canada
  
• FLL Blog

SKILLS CANADA   

Skills Canada promotes the skilled trades and technology careers. Skills Canada competitions take place at a regional, provincial, and national levels. The Nationals have 40, or more, categories of competition (including robotics). Skills Canada robots can be build from either kits or from scratch. They require students to explore electronics, mechanics, engineering and physics in order to meet the different levels and kinds of challenges. Students from the Comox Valley have won the national challenge, in both Robotics and the related field of Electronics, on a number of occasions.

• Robotics Competition 2010: pdf file outlining the competition for secondary students
• Provincials - Sumobots: for students from grades 6 to 9
• Skills Canada BC
• Skills Canada

VEX ROBOTICS  

The VEX Robotics competitions are largely aimed at High School and College students. Each year the "challenge" is different. Even if you don't take part in a formal competition, the skills and ideas needed build a strong technology foundation. The 2010 Clean Sweep winning alliance (of three teams) came from New Zealand (2 teams) and Shanghai, China. (We live in a flat world where all can aspire to excellence.)

• VEX Robotics Competitions
• VEX 2010 - 2011 Competition: Round Up
• VEX Round Up videos - from YouTube
• Announced regional competitions 2010 - 2011 - 99 as of July 2010
  
  
• VEX 2009 - 2010 Competition: Clean Sweep
• VEX Clean Sweep videos - from YouTube
• VEX Haka - from the New Zealand Alliance Winning Teams
  

• VEX Robots - photo gallery

OTHER COMPETITIONS   

The following is a partial list (in alphabetical order) of some of the other robotic competitions in which elementary, high school and college-aged students may participate. Some of these have focus that you may find particularly interesting. Feel free to let us know about the ones we've missed:

• AUVSI student competitions - covers air, ground, surface, and underwater events
• Best Robotics
• Botball 2010
• International Aerial Robotics competition
  
• RoboCup 2011 - Istanbul, Turkey
• RoboGames
• Robotic competitions - from Wikipedia (contains some dead links)

In the past year we have had visitors from more than 140 countries come to the SD#71 Robotics Pages, Career Pages and the eLibrary. They do us great honor in visiting us and then returning over and over again to these different sites. Recognizing how flat the world we live in is, we welcome suggestions that include local information and information from your perspective. So...send us an email and let us know what is going on in your part of the world.

Stewart Savard (eLibrarian) and Randy Grey (Career Coordinator)