From CISSRS
Robotics Systems Challenge 2008
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Date: Saturday, April 5, 2008
Time: 9am - 3pm
Place: Back Gymnasium, Homewood Campus
We're looking for volunteers to help out with this exciting event! Several teams of middle and high school students from across the state will bring their robots here to Hopkins to compete in a series of challenges, such as navigating through a maze and locating "tumors". This event is a great opportunity to get involved in Robotics and has been a lot of fun in previous years!
If you're interested in volunteering or judging at this competition, please email Tricia Gibo at gibo@jhu.edu ASAP. In your response, please include your name and the time(s) you'd be available.
Information for Teams
Message to Teams
The Robotics Systems challenge currently has 22 teams registered-- our best turn out yet! The competition this year promises to be very fun and has a couple of highlights (besides the competition, of course). There will be a plenary presentation by a pre-college engineering summer camp instructor on the "ins and outs" of studying engineering in college. To end the day on a high note, the day will conclude with optional campus tours featuring the brand-new Computational Sciences and Engineering Building, a cutting-edge facility which houses the Laboratory for Computational Science and Robotics-- one of the countries premiere robotics laboratories.
The Robotics Systems Challenge will be held in the Back Gymnasium this year, which is located a short walk from the Glass Pavilion where the event was held last year. This is on the Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus (approximately located at Canterbury Road and W. University Parkway). The Back Gymnasium is located within the gymnasium building, which is clearly indicated on the map linked above. Parking is located on W. University Parkway, in the San Martin Parking Garage, and also in the new Decker Parking Garage. The locations are also indicated on the linked map.
The Maryland Science Olympiad will be held throughout the Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus this Saturday, so anticipate seeing many other groups of high school students. Science Olympiad is holding competitions in the Front Gymnasium, so if you enter the building at the main entrance (from the cul-de-sac), please walk down the corridors the the Back Gymnasium which naturally located behind the Front Gymnasium. Signs will be posted to aid people in finding the location.
Thanks for participating; we look forward to seeing you and think that this year's competition will be a blast!
~The Computer Integrated Surgery Student Research Society
Map for Teams
Annotated Campus Map with Parking (Adobe PDF)
Information for the Press
WHEN:
Saturday, April 5th, 9 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
BEST PHOTO-VIDEO OPPORTUNITY:
10:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
WHERE:
Back Gymnasium, in the Newton White Athletic Center, at The Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md. See map linked above for more information. Annotated Campus Map with Parking (Adobe PDF)
WHO:
Twenty-two teams from Maryland middle and high schools will put their high-tech skills to the test in the second Robotic System Challenge. Each team will consist of up to three students. The event will be supervised by Johns Hopkins engineering students who are officers of the Computer-Integrated Surgery Student Research Society. The event is funded by the Johns Hopkins-based National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology.
WHAT:
Some teams will program small robots to move from a starting point to a finish line, passing though a series of "gates." Others must equip their robots with sensors so the devices can find their way through a mystery maze. Still other teams will be required to locate "tumors" (large dark circles) within an enclosure representing the brain and send out a signal each time a tumor is discovered. Some students will present oral reports and demonstrations regarding a new and innovative use for their small robots. Judges will be graduate and undergraduate students from Johns Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering.
WHY:
The event is designed to excite pre-college students in educational and career opportunities in engineering and science. This is the only medical robotics outreach competition in the nation for pre-college students. Funding from the Alumni Association enables underprivileged students to participate by loaner robotic kits. In addition to the contests, there will be a plenary lecture on science and engineering in college presented by an instructor at a pre-college engineering summer camp and also a campus tour that includes the new home of the Laboratory for Computational Science and Robotics, a world-class research facility where students will be able to see first-hand groundbreaking robotics research. Admissions materials will also be available for interested students.
MEDIA CONTACT AT THE EVENT:
Tom Wedlick, Co-President of the
Computer-Integrated Surgery Student Research Society. (Before the
event, Wedlick can be reached at: 
)
