Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Lawrenceville was a top finishers at the South’s BEST, or Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology, robotics competition at Auburn University. The school received first place for Webpage Design, was a finalist in the BEST Robotics game competition, and received the igus Top Gun Award for scoring the most points of any team in a single round. Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology is part of the Georgia BEST hub, headquartered at Southern Polytechnic State University. 

South’s BEST is a regional championship that is part of the national BEST Robotics program. During the game portion of the competition, students were tasked with designing a robot to compete in a series of head-to-head matches on two playing fields designed for this year’s game titled, “Warp XX.” The theme behind Warp XX was the space elevator, presenting a real-world engineering challenge of transporting supplies to and from the International Space Station on a tethered cable. Teams were tasked with designing and building a robot capable of climbing a 13-foot pole to carry and deliver essential items – fuel cells, solar panels, habitation modules, etc. – to and from the space station located at the top of the pole. 

BEST is a national robotics program for middle and high school students and is headquartered at Auburn University. The program culminates in one of three regional championships. South’s BEST took place Dec. 1-2 at Auburn University and included teams from Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. 

BEST Robotics is the third-largest educational robotics program in the nation and is the only one that is free to schools. The primary objective of the BEST Robotics program is to: provide students with a real-world engineering experience that incorporates the practical application of math and science; prepare students to be technologically literate and thus better prepared to enter the workforce; help students develop leadership, project management, teamwork and organizational skills; and develop confidence and competence. 
For more information, including a complete list of competition results, go to the website at www.southsbest.org.

Video clips of the competition are available for download at this link: http://auburn.edu/academic/science_math/media/video/