Biology

Students from the WKU Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society worked with Engineering faculty and staff to conduct the 13th annual Kentucky Bluegrass LEGO Robotics Competition on Saturday (Feb. 23) at Drakes Creek Middle School.

A total of 116 students competed on 34 teams in either the “Engineer-in-Training” division for elementary school teams or the “Professional Engineers” division for middle school and more experienced teams. More than 100 coaches and parents also attended.

Winning teams were as follows:

• EIT Division — Cumberland Trace Elementary School team of Hunter Hawkins, Trey Arnold, Patrick Stewart.
• PE Division — Drakes Creek Middle School team of Amrit Avula, Nicholas Barth, Tanner Willis.

The elementary and middle school teams were given the challenge of building an autonomous robot from LEGO Mindstorm kits to navigate two different surfaces, one simulating a NASA launch facility and the other a space flight to Mars, as quickly and accurately as possible. The competition kicked off in early January, and many of the students, coaches and parents visited the Engineering and Biological Sciences building to test and prepare their devices at help sessions offered by WKU Engineering.

Contact: John Inman, (270) 745-3048.