Three at a time, the teams faced off in two-minute matches that called on students to demonstrate technical prowess and cunning. The object: Get their robots to put large balls into an 8-foot-high goal. Each robot was assisted by a human player who could toss it balls from a marked area on the hexagonal playing field.
Inventor Dean Kamen, who founded the competition six years ago to stimulate students' interest in math and engineering, has dreams that the annual competition will become ``the NCAA of smarts.''
Backers believe such competitions that inspire and challenge students may be an important antidote to American students' sagging scores on international math and science tests.
According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study released last month, American high school seniors scored below students in most of the 21 other countries that were tested at the end of the 1994-95 school year.
``We have to turn this around,'' said Woodie Flowers, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He helps design the specifications for the competition each year. ``Young people must have a reason to aspire to learn things.''
For the contest, teams of high school students work with their teachers and corporate sponsors to design and build robots primarily using parts from a kit issued by the academic competition. This year's kit, which arrived in two big containers, had 436 components. In addition to such essentials as joysticks, 12-volt batteries and a motor, this year's grab bag included eight hex nuts and a zinc-plated screen-door catch.
Teams also could buy hardware from an approved list - but they could not spend more than $425.
Students and their advisers had six weeks to make sense of it all and design and build a robot that could collect and carry the 20-inch-diameter balls and get them into the goal.
