National Robotics Challenge - Recent Events

Recent Events

The 2004 event held at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Marion was a success. With over 200 students and multiple states represented the committee knew that there was going to be more demand for this type of an event in the future. The 2005 event showed some growth both in participants and sponsors. The 2005 event also concluded with another very important development, the addition of a fourth committee member. Brad Pottkotter had just started his teaching career at Ridgedale High School near Marion, and had come to judge at the 2005 NRC. After the awards ceremony Brad decided that he not only wanted to start a team for next year's event but he also wanted to join the effort. “I was very excited when Brad offered to join the committee. I just knew that he would be a real asset to the planning of our event,” said Tad Douce. The 2006 National Robotics Challenge expanded to include 5 middle schools, 27 high schools, and 4 post-secondary schools from Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, South Carolina, Michigan and New York. In all, there were over 180 robots entered in 11 different contest categories. Over 300 students and advisors all in one place; all enthusiastic about robotics education. Even though the event has gone through a great deal of change in the last few years some of the same things that made the 1986 event great can still be found. In 2008 Mark Robinson of Marion Harding High School's engineering program was also added to the team.

The 2009 event had college students compete from Iowa, Arkansas, New York, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. One of the high lights of the event was the Ohio Northern University automated Ice Cream Sundae machine. More than 1000 Sundaes were made for visitors and competitors alike. The largest field of entries to date competed in the three-day event. The Math Machine challenge was added in 2009 and had middle school and high school teams compete to complete a maze using their Ti-83/84 programmable calculators. A Vex Robotics regional contest was added to the contest in 2009. It will a separate contest in 2010. The AgBot contests was also added for elementary and middle school students. Venders from various robotic industry related businesses had booths and displays. Visitors were taken to RobotWorx for tours of the industrial robot integrator and distributor of new and used robots from top manufacturers such as Motoman, Panasonic, Fanuc, and ABB. The 2010 event will take place April 15,16 and 17th.