The 15th Annual MESA Olympics & Robotics Competition took place on Saturday, April 18, 2008 from 8:30 – 2:00 pm at San Diego City College.

67+ MESA students, staff, and volunteers across the MESA programs at San Diego State University, San Diego City College, Southwestern College, and from Morse high school, participated in the competition.

The competition segmented in problem-solving sessions, prosthetic arm and/or robotics competition designed to promote teamwork, engineering and problem solving skill development.

The OLYMPICS competition has teams of 4 students solve technical problems in mathematics, chemistry, physics and engineering. The competition is broken down in 3 academic levels:

1. Level 1 is the beginner level. Students competing at this level are high school seniors or freshmen. The competition worksheet includes problems from Introduction to Chemistry, Algebra, Trigonometry, and Pre-Calculus.
2. Level 2 is the intermediate level. Students competing at this level are college freshmen and sophomores. The competition worksheet includes problems up through General Chemistry, 1st and 2nd semester Calculus (high school equivalent is A.P. Calculus), and 1st semester Physics (i.e. Mechanics).
3. Level 3 is the advanced level. Students competing at this level are juniors and seniors. The competition worksheet contains problems up through Calculus 3, Differential Equations, Physics 2 + 3 (i.e. Electromagnetism), Statics, Dynamics, and Fluids.

The ROBOTICS competition uses the LEGO Mind storm NXT 2.0 robotics kits for teams of 4 students to build robots to complete 2 challenges-an obstacle course, and a head-to-head competition.

The San Diego MESA Alliance would like to thank the following companies and individuals for their time and support:

• SONY, for the first place awards
• NSF, for the second place awards
• San Diego City College, for the space
• Carol Gooden (NASLAND), Dolores Ventura (IEC), and Brianna Lutes (IEC) for representing industry and for proctoring and grading exams
• Mariam Aboushadi, Dr. Vadim Ponomarenko, Dr. Lisa Will, Dr. James Covalt, Dr. Theresa Bolanos, and Prof. Misael Camarena, for variously creating, modifying, improving, and/or perfecting the 2008 Olympics exams
• Cawin Tran, for creating the Robotics Challenge
• Your MESA faculty, staff, and supporters, without whom none of this would be possible

Competition results:

Robotics Challenge 1st place:  Sony Cybershot 7.2 MP digital camera

San Diego City College team

1. Everardo Maya
2. Rolando Herrera
3. Dana Long
4. Johnnie DeJesus

Robotics Challenge 2nd place:  Western Digital 2.5″ My Passport Essential USB 2.0 portable hard drive (black/yellow)

SDSU team

1. Leo Alo
2. Denden Tekeste
3. Abraham Gallardo
4. Abdullahi Elmi

Robotics Challenge 3rd place:  Apple 1 GB iPod Shuffle (purple/silver)

SDSU team

1. Richard Fernandez
2. Eric Guerreiro
3. David Lampley
4. Lorenzo Lopez

Olympics Level 3 1st place:  Sony 8″ Portable DVD player 

Southwestern College

1. Angel Haro
2. –
3. –
4. –

Olympics Level 3 2nd place:  Samsung 1080p Upconvert DVD player

SDSU team

1. Tope Olaniyan
2. Claudia Brizeula
3. Bobby Smith
4. Jose Gonzalez

Olympics Level 2 1st place:  Sony 2 GB Walkman MP3 player (black)

San Diego City College team

1. Manuel Mussen
2. Stuart Young
3. Shawn Krisman

Olympics Level 2 2nd place:  Jabra Bluetooth Headset

SDSU team

1. Brian Nguy
2. Joe Torres
3. Wahid Baha
4. James Grant

Olympics Level 1 1st place:  Sony 4 GB Walkman Video Player (white)

Morse high school team

1. Porfirio Guzman
2. John Jordan
3. Sandra Luna
4. Daniela Garcia
5. Doria Hernandez

Videos (check out more videos at the San Diego MESA Alliance YouTube channel – Olympics & Robotics Competition playlist):

Photo gallery: