About the Selection Process
Thank you to everyone who responded to the short notice of the 2010 Zero Robotics competition. The event attracted 82 Notice of Intent submissions, followed by 48 Full Applications. The applications asked for substantial information about the schools and an essay written by the students. The evaluation process included detailed review of all the information, including numerical evaluation of all the responses (almost 1000 different answers were graded!).
As has been mentioned, this is the second pilot competition for Zero Robotics, and the MIT team running the program is still learning. During the review process the team modified the number of accepted entrants to 24, instead of the originally 20 published. The main reason for this was to enable better competitions. 24 is easily divisible into 8, which is a power of 2. That property will enable the SPHERES team to run 3 different ground competitions of 8 schools, all with identical format. 20 schools would not have allowed identical formats for all ground competitions.
The competition will proceed as originally published: the 24 schools will compete in simulation and in ground testing. The 10 best schools, based on a combined simulation+ground score will compete aboard the ISS. The SPHERES team has already tested a 10-school bracket system successfully; it is especially beneficial because it ensures every team a double-elimination process. The 10 teams that get to compete aboard ISS will have at least two opportunities to win the event!
The 2010 Teams
Sorted by State
Name of School |
Team Name |
State |
|
Mesa Acad. for Advanced Studies/Mesa School District |
Mesa |
AZ |
|
Bellarmine College Preparatory |
BCP Zero Robotics |
CA |
|
James Monroe High School Engineering and Design Academy |
SkyNet1 |
CA |
|
Warren Tech / Jeffco Schools |
Team Foxtrot |
CO |
|
John A. Ferguson Sr. High/Miami-Dade County Public Schools |
Phoenix Programmers |
FL |
|
Naples High School |
Team Vector |
FL |
|
Columbus High School / Muscogee County |
SpaceDevils |
GA |
|
Boundary County School District 101 |
Absolute Zero |
ID |
|
Post Falls High School |
Team DELTA |
ID |
|
Glenbrook North |
Glenbrook North High School |
IL |
|
Northeast Magnet HS USD259 |
Northeast Magnet HS USD259 |
KS |
|
Lexington Christian Academy |
LCA Team ZeroBotX |
MA |
|
Tri County Regional Vocational Technical High School |
TRIFORCE |
MA |
|
Falmouth High School / Falmouth Maine |
Delta Falmouth |
ME |
|
Detroit SEMAA |
Team Revolution |
MI |
|
Academy / Omaha |
Academy |
NE |
|
Storming Robots |
Storming Robots |
NJ |
|
Stuyvesant High School |
Stuy-Naught |
NY |
|
Upper St. Clair School District |
USC SCALE |
PA |
|
Friendswood High School |
Ganymede |
TX |
|
Cyprus High School/ Granite School District |
A TEAM |
UT |
|
Charlottesville High School |
BACON (CHS Black Knights) |
VA |
|
Prince William County School System |
SuperNOVA |
VA |
|
Kamiak High School |
Kamiak |
WA |
In 2010, only its 2nd year after getting started, Zero Robotics has teams from 19 states across the nation!
View Zero Robotics 2010 Participants in a larger map
The Future
Want to participate in the future? Plans area already in the works for a Fall 2011 event which will allow everyone who submits a complete proposal (which will be reviewed) to participate in the simulation stage. The simulation stage will lead to an elimination round for ground competition (number of competitors TBD). As this year, the best 10 schools based on combined simulation and ground testing performance will once again compete aboard the ISS!
Please stay tuned to http://zerorobotics.mit.edu for information about this year's progress and next year's plans.
