Wichita Homeschool won both the BEST Award and the Head-to-Head Robot Performance awards at the Kansas BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) competition Oct. 28.
The event was held at Wichita State University and sponsored by Textron Aviation, Spirit AeroSystems and ROTC. WSU's College of Engineering was a partner for the event.
Kansas BEST is designed to inspire and motivate students toward careers in engineering, science and technology. This year's games was "Incision Decision," and the theme was robot-assisted surgery. 17 teams from around the state of Kansas participated in the competition.
Four of the top competitors qualified for the regional Championship in Denver, Dec. 16-17.
Accompanying Wichita Homeschool will be: Garden City High School (2nd place BEST Award), Rock Creek Jr/Sr High School (2nd place Robot Performance, 2nd place Most Robust Machine), and Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School (3rd Place Robot Performance, 3rd place Founder's Award).
The BEST Award is based on a project notebook, oral presentation, table display and interviews, in addition to the robot head-to-head competition. The Robot Performance Award is based on a Critical Design Review and the points scored in the robot head-to-head competition.
Other top awards from the 2023 Kansas BEST competition:
The Founder's Award for Creative Design by Textron Aviation: Wichita Homeschool
Most Robust Machine Award by Spirit Aerosystems: Wichita Homeschool
Army ROTC Judges Choice Critical Design Review: Republic County High School
The Top Gun Award for most points scored in a single match: Wichita Homeschool
A complete list of all the awards presented can be found at kansasbest.org and video of the presentations on Facebook at @KansasBESTRobotics.
