HOT SPRINGS — The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Robotics Team - including April Abiera, junior from Gravette, daughter of Michael and Lisa Abiera; Tait Clements, senior from Decatur, son of Heidi andAnthony Migliori and Thomas Clements - earned two first-place awards at the Frontier Trails Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) Regional Robotics Competition, held Dec. 10-11 at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.

The team placed first in the Founders Award and the Most Elegant categories. The Founder’s Award is given to the team that makes best use of the engineering process in consideration of offensive and defensive capabilities in machine design and is awarded in recognition of BEST founders Steve Marum and Ted Mahler.

The Most Elegant Award is givento the team whose machine demonstrates the best design and execution of the game - the machine that makes you say, “Wow!”

The team also placed third in the most robust category. That award is given to the team whose machine requires the least maintenance during and between matches and is generally the sturdiest machine in the competition.

The BEST Robotics Competition is for middle- and high-school teams whichare given six weeks to design, build and drive a robot to perform an assigned task. At the initial competition held in Little Rock in November, the ASMSA won four first-place awards including the BEST award, which is awarded to the team that best embodies the concept of Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology.

“BEST Robotics embodies what every club should strive for,” said Nick Seward, the team’s advisor. “ BEST is fun, engaging, andchallenging. This helps students acquire many real world marketable skills that go much beyond building a robot: web design, graphic design, marketing, drafting, video editing, sound editing, teamwork, mechanism design and the engineering process. I have seen many students make positive changes after participating. Some start trying harder in school. Some pick a more technical degree. I am very pleased to be a part of this.”

ASMSA Robotics Team members are: April Abiera, Anali Benavides, Luke Clement, Tait Clements, Alec Crow, Arnab Dey, Kori Gills, Scott Glover, Stephen Hu, Hodge Hunter, Christi Kim, Jessica Laws, Zach Lovin, Calvin MacKenzie, Ryan Medlock, Becky Rainwater, Jamie Smith and Connor Young.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts is one of 14 public residential high schools in the country specializing in the education of academically gifted juniors and seniors. Located in historic downtown Hot Springs, the school is a campus of the University of Arkansas system. ASMSA also provides an award-winning K-12 distance education program that serves nearly 3,500 students.

School News, Pages 11 on 01/19/2011