The competition identifies and recognizes volunteer efforts to enhance the teaching of K-12 math, science, and technology and gives these efforts visibility so that other IEEE sections can emulate them. The volunteer leaders of the three projects will attend the conference as guests of the committee. The Baltimore Section's Robot Challenge. Drawings are provided, and mentors are available for guidance and assistance. The six-foot track for the race has two hurdles and is so challenging that this year only a quarter of the teams completed the course in the allotted time.
Students prepare a written report and make oral presentations to the judges.
Prizes are awarded, but students who make it to the competition are all considered winners, and detailed feedback is sent to their teachers. Typically a team spends seven to 20 weeks to build its robot, and the appearance of each one is different. The design of the robot mechanism is intentially marginal, giving the students an opportunity to apply basic engineering principles to solving the problems that arise. This year the Baltimore Section volunteers became involved with some of the other challenges and published a program for all the events that will be used to attract more students in the future. It is also considering other types of robot activities for elementary and middle school students.