BotNews: Botball Season 2008
October 2008
In This Issue
X PRIZE Challenge
Robotevents.com
Create Giveaway
2008 Scholarships

The X PRIZE Lunar Rover Botball Design Challenge

Create XBC

Do your students want to participate in the Google Lunar X PRIZE?  Yes?  Then try winning the X PRIZE Lunar Rover Botball Design Challenge first!

Your team's mission is to create a website about a conceptual mobile robot that will win the The Google Lunar X PRIZE. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a challenge for private companies to land a robotic rover on the moon that will send at least a gigabyte of images back to Earth.

While your team won't win the $20 million X PRIZE is offering, your team is eligible to win a $1000 award that can be used as a travel grant to the Global Conference on Educational Robotics to be held in summer of 2008 or as a partial fee waiver towards your 2009 Botball team registration.

For more information about the X PRIZE Lunar Rover Botball Design Challenge, click here.

Greetings!

Congratulations are in order!  Several Botball teams competed in the 2007 Botball and Beyond CAD Contest sponsored by SolidWorks and the recently announced winners include:

1st Place - Los Altos Community Team (Northern California)
2nd Place - Earl's Garage (Hawaii)
3rd Place - Nease High School (Florida)

If you would like to check out the winning entry, click here
Botball is a part of Robotevents.com!
robotevents.com

Robotevents.com is a comprehensive online resource that brings together information from many of the organizations in the educational robotics community - including Botball!

The site features news and information on conferences, camps, and workshops for students and educators as well as access to curriculum ideas from the NASA Robotics Alliance Project. Visitors will be able to access robotics blogs and online forums, and view the latest designs in a variety of robot galleries. The site will also feature a "cool robot of the week."  This week it is a photo from the 2007 NCER featuring robots from Cedar Brook Academy and Torrey Pines High School!

Later this month, new and returning Botball teams will register for the program through robotevents.com. 

Sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?  Click here to check it out!

Who won the first Create giveaway from iRobot?

Team 08-0052 - Blow Pierce Junior Academy!

On September 28th, KISS Institute held the first in a series of monthly drawings for registered Botball teams to win an Create Robotic Platform from iRobot! Every team registered by midnight (Central Time) the day before a scheduled drawing will automatically be entered in the drawing for that month. The earlier you register, the more chances you have to win!

More drawings will be held on:

  • October 31
  • November 30
  • December 20
DON'T FORGET: 2008 Botball Scholarship Applications

The initial review deadline for scholarships is November 1.  If you would like your team to receive early confirmation of a scholarship award, apply on or before before November 1 and read all of the information BEFORE applying. Teams must be registered for the 2008 Botball season to be considered for a scholarship. 

Read the 2008 Scholarship Policy.
Most of the dates for the 2008 workshops and tournaments have been set.  If you don't know when and where your regional events are being held, be sure to visit the  2008 Season Schedule today.  Many teams have already registered for the 2008 season and submitted their scholarship applications.  Don't let your team miss out on a great upcoming season - register soon!

Sincerely,
 

Jenny Grigsby
Public Outreach Coordinator
KISS Institute for Practical Robotics