Saturday, December 5, 2009

Texas Best Robotics Regional Championship

As part of being a journalist for the school of engineering, sometimes I go to engineering events here at the school. Most recently we had a Texas Best Robotics competition where we had several high schools and geeks among geeks of kids, teachers, and professionals gather to build robots! Several people from UNT engineering, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and even NASA were involved in the event. The keynote speaker, B. Gentry Lee, the chief engineer at the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, spoke in depth about the importance of engineering and robotics, especially as it pertains to space travel. This guy is the tool of the trade, as he also is an active science fiction novelist, television producer, computer game designer, media columnist, and lecturer. And I thought I did a lot!
There were about 1200 people or more at this event, which took place at the UNT coliseum! I was one of three responsible for managing the raffle for the event. It was fun to be able to see the next generation engineers, and be able to give away $300 in Best Buy gift cards! About 120 students signed up for the raffle, which comes just in time for the holiday season. What's better is that the eng.unt.edu site is where students had to go to sign up, and it just so happens the student journalist and ambassador pictures scroll through that page. It was fun to be recognized by some of the students!

Keep at it little engineerlites, and see you in 4+ years! Who knows, maybe I'll be your teacher.