What a great weekend for Robotics fun in the Willmar Lakes Area! It has been so much fun watching the talented young students competing in the MN BEST Robotics Competition at New London-Spicer High School on October 28-29, 2016. It amazes me what they can accomplish in just a few weeks.

The last two days have been action packed and the results are in:

Congratulations to all the participants!

Sweat and Duct Tape Award goes to the team that did everything they could do to make their robot operational, through problem solving and innovation…along with using a lot of duct tape. The Sweat and Duct Tape Award goes to Belgrade – Brooten – Elrosa Robotics.

Top Gun Award goes to the team who score the most points in a single match during the competition. This year’s Top Gun Award goes to New London – Spicer Tool Cats Robotics Team with 840 points in a single round during the seeding sessions.

Software Design and Simulation Award, given to the team who developed the most efficient software program for their robot, is awarded to ARCHER Robotics.

The Website Design Award was given to MACCRAY Robotics. This award was based on a team’s website overall design, appearance, content and navigation.

Spirit, Sportsmanship and Teamwork: Given to the team that shows the most spirit, sportsmanship, and team work to all members of the team plus positive interaction with other teams. This year’s Spirit, Sportsmanship and Teamwork award was awarded to the team ARCHER Robotics.

Team Exhibit & Interview, Marketing & Engineering Notebook Award Winner: ARCHER Robotics.

Most Robust Robot Award: Goes to the team whose machine has the fewest number of breakdowns during the game and the robot that can extract itself from most situations.This year’s winner is the KMS Robotics.

Founders Award Winner is awarded to the team that makes best use of the engineering process in consideration of offensive and defensive capabilities in machine design. It is awarded in recognition of the BEST Founders, Steve Marum and Ted Mahler. This year, the Founders Award for Creative Design was awarded to New London – Spicer Tool Cats Robotics Team.

Robotics Competition Winners:
1st place: New London – Spicer Robotics – 2135 points
2nd place: ARCHER Robotics – 1645 points
3rd place: KMS Robotics – 1595 points

BEST Awards: The most prized of all the awards. The BEST Awards are given to the teams that best embody the concept of Boosting Engineering, Science & Technology. The BEST score is a culmination of the Engineering Notebook score, the Marketing Presentation score, Team Exhibit score, Team Spirit and Sportsmanship and the Robot Performance.

Winning the overall BEST AWARD:

1st place: ARCHER Robotics
2nd place: New London – Spicer Tool Cats Robotics Team
3rd place: MACCRAY Robotics

Teams, who because of their performance in today’s Robotics Competition and the BEST award that have earned an invitation to the Northern Plains BEST Regional Championship, held December 1-3 at the Civic Center and NDSU in Fargo, include: ARCHER Robotics, New London – Spicer Robotics and MACCRAY Robotics.

Congratulations to all participants and good luck to the three teams representing Minnesota BEST in Fargo.