A LEGO Mindstorm races to return LEGOs back to its homebase.

The 17th Annual MESA Olympics and Robotics Challenge event was held on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at San Diego City College.

Teams consisting of MESA students at San Diego State University (SDSU), San Diego City College (SDCC), Southwestern Community College (SWC), Morse High School, Imperial Valley High School, Southwest High School, and William Moreno Jr. High School competed against each other in exams that spanned Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and some Engineering material.

Each campus was also allowed up to 3 teams who would program a LEGO MindStorm NXT robotics kit to compete in 2 missions. The first mission required speed and intelligence to maneuver from a home area through a slalom course. The second mission was a combination control and head-to-head event where robots raced to collect the most LEGO pieces and return them back to their home base under a constrained area and time limit.

Olympics Level 1 winners:

3rd place:  San Diego City College
1 Troast Nick
2 Deleon Mario
3 Suarez Fredy
4 Gonzalez Bretzner

2nd place:  San Diego City College
1 Taylor Kiedra
2 Spencer Ted
3 Ridgell Latina
4 Baldati-rice Yvette

1st place: Southwestern College
1 Sanchez Frank
2 Osuga Takesi
3 Ordonez Jorge
4 Martinez Andrea

Olympics Level 2 winners:

3rd place:  San Diego State University
1 Duenas Brianna
2 Garcia Matthew
3 Alonzo David

2nd place:  Southwestern College
1 Guerrero Hector
2 Viva David
3 Hernandez Gustavo
4 Godinez Edmundo

1st place:  Southwestern College
1 Ascenico Ana
2 Imran Yasmin
3 Svoroski Yari
4 Cacillas Enrique

Olympics Level 3 winners:

3rd place:  San Diego State University
1 Hale Irene
2 Gomez Roberto

2nd place:  San Diego City College
1 Yepiz Frank
2 Huynh Hung
3 Davidson Jessie
4 Nichol Misty

1st place:  Southwestern College
1 Herath Chatura
2 Gianino Mark
3 Bureaud Eric
4 Huang Lihua

Robotics Challenge winners:

3rd place:  San Diego City College
1 Gomez Jorge
2 Long Dana

2nd place:  San Diego City College
1 Troast Nick
2 Gonzalez Bretzner
3 Deleon Mario
4 Suarez Fredy

1st place:  Southwest High School
1 Rodriguez Daniela
2 Martinez Andrew
3 Ramos Frederick

Special thanks:

Prize sponsors:

• The National Science Foundation
• LG Electronics

San Diego MESA Alliance Industry Advisory Board volunteers, MESA Schools Program advisers, San Diego City College faculty, MESA staff, family and friends:

• Brianna Lutes of Infrastructure Engineering Corporation
• Daisy Galeana of Solar Turbines
• Dr. Douglas Fenner of SPAWAR
• Maria Victoria Charles of Hamilton Sundstrand
• Southwest High School MESA Advisor Ms. Sullivan
• William Moreno Jr High School MESA Advisor Mr. Magallanes

Additional photo coverage can be found at the San Diego MESA Alliance Facebook Page.

For Immediate Release Danielle McNamara (510)987-0230
April 13, 2010 danielle.mcnamara@ucop.edu

Students Compete in Calculator, Robotics Competition

Bragging rights, prizes and some extra math practice are on the line for more than 100 students during the 17th Annual MESA Olympics this Saturday, April 17.

The event, held by Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) programs in the San Diego and Imperial Valley area, allows students to work in teams on multi-level calculator contests and a robotics challenge.

“This event helps students review material in a fun method just before midterms and finals,” said San Diego State MESA Engineering Program Director Theresa Garcia. San Diego State, San Diego City College, Southwestern College and Imperial Valley all host MESA programs and make up the San Diego MESA Alliance which sponsors the Olympics.

MESA students from middle school, high school, community college and four-year colleges will compete in subjects such as algebra, chemistry, calculus, physics, and circuits. The robotics teams will have to make the robot zigzag between obstacles or compete in a head to head competition to collect objects.

Industry partners and MESA alumni will judge the events.

MESA, an academic preparation program that serves 20,249 California pre-college, community college and university students who are educationally disadvantaged, is an awarding winning model with a high success rate. Eighty-one percent of MESA high school graduates statewide went directly to college after graduation compared to 47 percent of all California graduates. Fifty-seven percent of MESA students go on as math, science or engineering majors. In the San Diego area, MESA serves about 1,700 students from elementary school to community college and four-year college at five centers.

Considering that 17 of the top 20 fastest growing jobs in the country are in STEM fields and in 2001, more than 14,000 California jobs requiring science or engineering degrees went unfulfilled, successful programs such as MESA are an imperative.

Who: More than 100 middle school, high school, community college and four year college students interested in math, science and engineering

http://mesa.ucop.edu/news/pressreleases/competition_0410.html

When: Saturday, April 17 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Where: San Diego City College, 1313 Park Boulevard, San Diego.

For more information about the San Diego Alliance visit http://alliance.sdccmesa.com.
For more information about MESA visit http://mesa.ucop.edu/home.html.
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Teams consisting of MESA students at San Diego State University (SDSU), San Diego City College (SDCC), Southwestern Community College (SWC), and participating schools from Imperial Valley and San Diego MESA Schools Programs competed against each other in exams that included Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and some Engineering material.

Each school was also allowed 1-2 teams who would program a LEGO Mindstorm NXT robotics kit to compete in2 missions.  The first mission required speed and intelligence to maneuver through each checkpoint correctly.  The second mission was a head-to-head competition in that robots raced to collect the most LEGO pieces under a constrained area and time limit.

Special thanks to the events prize sponsors, Sony and the National Science Foundation, and San Diego MESA Alliance Industry Advisory Board volunteers, Carol Gooden of NASLAND Engineering and Brianna Lutes of Infrastructure Engineering Corporation, the MESA Schools Program advisors, and all of the MESA staff.

Robotics Challenge

1st place – SDSU – winners of Sony handycam.

2nd place – Calipatria High School – winners of portable 250GB hard drive.

3rd place – De Anza High School – winners of 7″ digital photo frame.

Calculator Olympics Level 1

1st place – SWC – winners of Sony 8GB Walkman (black).

2nd place – SDSU – winners of Sansa 2GB MP3 players.

3rd place – Southwest High School – winners of Sony 1GB Walkman (blue).

Calculator Olympics Level 2

1st place – SWC – winners of portable 230GB hard drive (black and blue).

2nd place – SDSU – winners of Bamboo PC tablets with pen.

3rd place – SDSU – winners of Plantronics Bluetooth headset with free pairing service.

Calculator Olympics Level 3

1st place – SDSU – winners of Sony portable DVD player.

2nd place – SDCC – winners of Apple iPod 4GB shuffle with voiceover feature.

3rd place – SDSU – winners of 8GB USB flash drive.

Additional photo coverage can be found at the San Diego MESA Alliance Facebook page.

Teams from San Diego State University, San Diego City College, and Southwestern Community College compete against each other in exams that include Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, and some Engineering material. Each school will also have 1-2 teams who will program its robot to compete in two heats. Sign up sheets are usually on hand at each MESA centers’ respective offices prior to Spring Break.