The 21st Annual MESA Olympics & Robotics Competition took place on Saturday, April 26, 2014 at San Diego State University.
MESA students across the MESA programs at San Diego State University, San Diego City College, Southwestern College, Southwest high school, and Imperial high school, participated in the competitions.
The competition segmented in problem-solving sessions and a 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:
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
Robotics videos:
Photo gallery (courtesy Jose Islas):
