
18-04-2002, 10:41
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Rookie Year: 2001
Location: CAK
Posts: 5,067
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Battlebots I.Q.- A serious threat to FIRST or a half thought up cheep copy?
Read this dabate from NYT:
Quote:
The action on the playing field was strikingly different at the BattleBots IQ tournament, held for the first time in March in a cavernous soundstage at Universal Studios in Orlando. In the center of the soundstage, framed on three sides by bleachers, was a large plexiglass cube in which the matches took place. Saws popping up from the floor and heavy hammers hanging at the corners of the cube were controlled by students trying to damage the opposing team's robots. But the pit area was similar to those of First competitions: teams freely shared tools, spare parts and advice.
Among those who helped start the BattleBots IQ program are Nola Garcia, who still runs a Miami-based First team, and Michael Bastoni, a teacher from Plymouth North High School in Massachusetts who formerly took part in First and now fields teams for BattleBots IQ. Alex Slocum, an M.I.T. professor who studied under Dr. Flowers and works down the hall from him, helped write the robot-building guidelines.
In one confrontation, a robot built by students from Hauppauge High School on Long Island got caught under one of the hammers and endured a series of nasty whacks, one of which immobilized it, ending the match. Afterward, a man swept the metal shavings from the ring, and team members in blue coveralls and hard hats carried their robot into the pit area, where they analyzed what had happened. After removing its dented skin, they discovered the problem: a disconnected battery.
Some teams, like the one from Hauppauge, competed this year in both First and BattleBots IQ. Others at the BattleBots tournament were new to robotics competitions altogether, like the four schools from the Pueblo School District in Colorado, one of which fielded Tetanus, a menacing robot with a rusty blade that spun at 1500 rpm. A few schools had shifted from First to BattleBots IQ, citing the lower cost of taking part (a registration fee of $100 per team, plus whatever the team decides to spend on robot materials), the simpler game rules and the possibility of winding up on television or even having their robot transformed into a toy. (BattleBots has a licensing deal with Hasbro and says it will share toy and television royalties with schools that take part. First emphasizes the $1.2 million in scholarships that it will hand out this season.)
Can the two programs co-exist peacefully, bringing robotics competitions to a larger number of schools?
Dr. Flowers said that he believed that the educational merits of participating in First and in BattleBots IQ could "be quite equivalent" but that he worried about the safety issues raised by BattleBots. "If I were a principal, would I want students building something overtly dangerous?" he said. "It just scares me. And I'd be disappointed if it turns out that we need destruction for something to be interesting."
Mr. Bastoni said that the BattleBots IQ program enforced rigorous safety rules. "There is room for diversity," he said, noting that the Olympic Games include aggressive sports like boxing and hockey along with diving and figure skating.
Still, sniping between the two groups occasionally flares up. Mr. Roski of BattleBots has said that engineers, not students, do too much of the work on First robots; Mr. Kamen has argued that civilization does not advance by one group's demolishing the achievements of another, but rather by building something superior.
Odd as it may seem, the initial peace overtures seem to be coming from the organizers of Battlebots IQ.
"Kids love First and they love BattleBots," Ms. Garcia said. "They're two different engineering exercises. If I like chocolate ice cream, I can like vanilla, too."
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So, is Battlebots IQ a serious threat to the moral and other positions FIRST has and FIRST itself? Or is it a half harted attempt to pre-umpt FIRST and will die along with Battlebots in the next few years?
IMHO, Battlebots IQ won't survive. It is too violent to be addapted outside of the US (except mabey in the UK). Plus, they currently hold rounds in Universal, so that's a death bed too. Plus, when was the last time you watched WB instead of ESPN or ABC which FIRST has.
Note: Note Dean's rebuttle to that FIRST relies to much on engineers.
Last edited by Joe Matt : 18-04-2002 at 10:51.
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