COLUMBUS, Ohio – Frisbee-flinging robots will invade Dublin Coffman High School Saturday for the fourth annual Connect a Million Minds Robotics Invitational, a part of the Central Ohio Robotics Initiative.
Sponsored by Time Warner Cable, Connect A Million Minds is a five-year, $100 million initiative to improve education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Thirty teams of high school students from central Ohio and surrounding states operate robots, which can stand up to 5 feet tall and weigh about 120 pounds, which the students have developed in cooperation with professional science and engineering mentors over the past six and a half weeks.
To qualify for the event, teams of 25 students or more raise funds, design a team “brand,” and build and program their robots to perform prescribed tasks.
This year’s competition has been dubbed Ultimate Ascent, based on the game of Ultimate Frisbee, and features the robots throwing Frisbees at targets on a playing surface about half the size of a basketball court.