The 22nd Annual MESA Olympics & Robotics Competition took place on Saturday, April 18, 2015 at San Diego City College.

The MESA Olympics & Robotics Competition is segmented in problem-solving sessions and a robotics competition designed to promote teamwork, engineering and problem solving skill development.

MESA students across the MESA programs at San Diego State University, San Diego City College, Southwestern College, and Sweetwater high school participated in the competitions.

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, Fluids4, Ethics, and other E.I.T. material.

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

A prosthetic arm research presentation was given by students from the SDSU Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.

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

1. Maria Charles – of Pratt & Whitney AeroPower, SDCC/SDSU MESA alumna
2. Ryan Charles
3. Brianna Lutes – of Infrastructure Engineering Corporation, SDSU MESA alumna
4. Andrea Olvera – SDSU MESA student
5. Phillip Patague – of Terramar Engineering Inc., SWC/SDSU MESA alumnus
6. Bianca Ross – of Carlsbad High School, SDSU MESA alumna

SDSU MESA teams swept the entire Robotics competition!  Robotics competition results:

1st place overall winners (Roku stick):

San Diego State University robot

1. Israel Morado
2. Erica Jane Cabaluna
3. Jessenia Lara
4. Marisela Martinez

2nd place overall winners (pointer/advancer):

San Diego State University robot

1. Mireille Garcia
2. Manolo Laguna
3. Samuel Espinoza
4. Andreas McColley

3rd place overall winners (portable charger):

San Diego State University robot

1. Arrone Bueno
2. Nicole Ortiz
3. Nicholas Nguyen
4. Thai Van

Southwestern College MESA teams swept grand prize honors in all 3 levels of the Olympics competition!  Olympics competition results:

Grand prize Level 3 winners (Seagate backup HD):

Southwestern College

1. Ivan Ulloa
2. Alfredo Calderon
3. Aldair Reynoso
4. Leonardo Mazuitti

Runner-up Level 3 winners (Roku stick):

San Diego City College

1. Jeremy Huerto
2. Brandon Mariscal
3. Elizabeth Rodriguez

Grand prize Level 2 winners (Seagate backup HD):

Southwestern College

1. Edna Stewart
2. Stephanie Serhan
3. Christian Rizzo
4. Emmanuel Mercado

Runner-up Level 2 winners (earbuds):

San Diego City College

1. Zachary Mullaghy
2. Jonathan Bravo
3. Arturo Baza
4. Mauricio Marquez

Grand prize Level 1 winner (Roku stick):

Southwestern College

1. Lara Stewart
2. Carla Stewart
3. Erica Castano
4. Yasmeen Obeid

Runner-up Level 1 winners (USB thumb drive):

San Diego City College

1. Nora Warren
2. David Robinson
3. Nathandis Wyley

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

Photo gallery (check out more photos at the San Diego City College MESA Shutterfly album):