AU Hosts BEST Robotics -- Developing the Workforce of the Future

South_Best1Illinois and Alabama Teams Win 2008 South's BEST Robotics Competition.

Despite the cold breeze whipping across the Auburn campus on Saturday afternoon, the atmosphere in Beard Eaves Memorial Coliseum was smoking with the energy of 3,500 middle and high school students participating in the 2008 South's BEST Robotics Competition.

BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) has been described as a basketball game, chess match and science fair all rolled into one high-energy competition with cheerleaders, pep bands, mascots and a thousand cheering fans mixed in.  At the center of all this activity is an educational program that builds interest in math and science, with the goal of developing the workforce for the future. 

South_Best2In Sept., teams from 218 middle and high schools from Florida to Massachusetts received their kits of standardized parts and were given the details of this year's game - Just Plane Crazy - that challenged them to assemble aircraft in a simulated manufacturing plant using Lean Manufacturing and Just-in-Time Inventory strategies.

These teams had six weeks to design and build a robot for head-to-head competition at one of eleven local hubs.  A second portion of the competition tested the team's ability to market their creations using presentations, notebooks, displays, and t-shirt designs. The top six teams from each of these competitions advanced to South's BEST Robotics Championship.

"This is impressive, very impressive," says Mark Whitlock, CEO of the Central Education Center (CEC) in Newnan, Ga.  Whitlock, a retired banker, leads a coalition of business and industry leaders, local governments and schools that is working to ensure that Georgia schools are meeting the needs of today's students.

"In the future, businesses will have a global customer base, fewer layers of management, and will be more automated," says Whitlock. "The BEST competition, which mirrors a real-word product launch, gives students a taste of the skills they are going to need to be a success in this new world."  

And while BEST is most certainly a lot of fun, the students also seem to know and appreciate that what they are doing matters. 

"BEST is more interactive than a classroom and makes science come alive," says Chris Morgan, a student from Haddam-Killingworth High School in Higganum, Conn. 
Fellow team member Tyus Buckley chimes in, "There's more trial and error here. Not necessarily just right or wrong. Sometimes there is a better right or a not as much wrong. The project gave me a much better understanding of the creative process."
Reid Harris, a member of the Decatur Austin Robotics Coalition (DARC) from Decatur, Ala. has been involved in BEST for four years.
South_Best3"I'd heard BEST was a close to a real-world business experience that I could get while I was still in school ... so I joined," says Harris. "I'm interested in engineering, and while I enjoyed that part of the competition, I've also seen how the math, science, English and business I was taking in school all came together when solving a problem.  I've learned that without teamwork, planning, and time management good ideas don't become reality."
According to BEST co-director George Blanks, one of the most powerful aspects of BEST is the pairing of teams with mentors who are real-world engineers.  "Most students have some idea of what doctors and firemen do. That has not necessarily been the case for engineers. BEST helps bust through the stereotype of the nerdy engineer. Students are often surprised to find that engineers are fun people who are very creative, love their work and earn a very good living."
Teachers, like Dr. Debi Huffman, an aerospace educator from Fernbank Science Center in Dekalb County, Ga. are the heart of BEST. She has been involved with the program for five years and has taken her team to South's BEST three of those years.  
"A lot of my kids are in advanced placement studies, so they have some pretty hard classes that sometimes aren't a lot of fun," says Huffman.  "BEST makes learning more exciting because they get to apply what they are learning in the classroom. That feedback is important." 
And if the crowd at this week's competition was any indication, BEST is also a family affair. Katie Faught has enjoyed watching the students on her son's Homewood Middle School team work through the design process. "It is amazing to see young minds problem solving and team building at this level. It's like getting the football over the goal line all day long. Plus the kids get to tear something apart and put it back together without getting in trouble."
That hands-on experience is what brings students back for more. This was the first year on the Davison High School team for Michigan students Thomas Burger and MacKenzie Clark.  But both plan to be back next year for more.
"I've been taking engineering classes," says MacKenzie.  "I was able to use everything I've learned during this competition ... and it was an awesome feeling."   

Burger joined the team to work on the CAD drawings but then moved onto the construction side and had the opportunity to see what the drawings were actually used for. "After that I was moved to the presentation team where I used everything, and I mean everything, that I used in my speech and English classes.  I also got to coach others and realized that I could teach others. I liked it."

BEST Robotics competition 3Mary Lou Ewald, BEST co-director explains that Auburn's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and College of Sciences and Mathematics recognize the importance of engaging students early on in programs that address critical problem solving skills in order to seed our future workforce with scientists and engineers. 

"I've been involved in K-12 outreach activities for many years. The volunteers that manned this competition this weekend  - from industry and education -- are here because BEST works."

The winners of this year's South's BEST robotics competition were Manteno High School, Manteno, Il., first place; Decatur Austin Robotics Coalition, Decatur, Ala., second place; and Milton High School, Milton, Fla., third place.

First place BEST award winners were: Decatur Austin Robotics Coalition, from Decatur, Ala.; second place, Priceville High School, also from Decatur; and third place, Wheeler High School, from Marietta, Ga.

The set for this year's event was designed by students from Auburn's College of Architecture, Design and Construction.