At a glance
Fifty-six students representing nine regional high schools recently participated in the second annual Alfred State Technology Challenge on the Alfred State campus. This year’s event was a robotics competition. Armed with robot kits donated by Alfred State College and criteria for a business plan, given to each team during a meet-and-greet event earlier in the semester, the 11 teams’ robots
Fifty-six students representing nine regional high schools recently participated in the second annual Alfred State Technology Challenge on the Alfred State campus. This year’s event was a robotics competition. Armed with robot kits donated by Alfred State College and criteria for a business plan, given to each team during a meet-and-greet event earlier in the semester, the 11 teams’ robots competed in three separate events. The competition provides an opportunity for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors to showcase their technology and business skills, and includes two facets: (1) the design, construction, and performance of a robot and (2) the production of a business plan for marketing the robot. Last year’s robots competed in a basketball challenge and an elevation game (where Styrofoam® bricks were stacked by the students’ robot creations). A third game, clean sweep, where the object is to transfer as many balls from your side of the table to your opponent’s side, was added to the contest this year. Alfred State College robotics students refereed the games while competitors’ business plans were judged by Alfred State College senior Business Department students.
The overall winner was Williamson High School (team #2); Williamson High School (team #1) and Wildwood Education Center (Hornell) took second and third place, respectively. Other participating schools included Canisteo-Greenwood, Edison Tech, Portville High School, Hornell High School, Ellicottville Central, East High, and Rush-Henrietta.
VEX Corp. donated the trophies and parts for the playing field and parts for the elevation game. Lunch for participants and their advisers was provided by ACES (Auxiliary Campus Enterprise and Services, the campus dining, vending, and transportation provider). Other support was provided by the ASC Schools of Applied Technology and Management and Engineering Technology and by a gender equity grant under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act Amendments of 1990 administered by the NYS Education Department.