Need more information? Contact us
Over the past several years, hundreds of local middle and high school students have participated in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Blazer BEST Robotics competition.
BEST, or Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology, Robotics, Inc., is a nonprofit, volunteer-run national organization whose mission is to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics through participation in a sports-like science- and engineering-based robotics competition.
Blazer BEST Robotics is a BEST hub in central Alabama and is sponsored by the UAB School of Engineering. The annual competition is held each fall and is open to middle and high school students in the Greater Birmingham, Jefferson County and Shelby County areas.
As the popularity of the event has grown, UAB’s School of Engineering has remained committed to allowing teams to compete free of charge. To continue providing this valuable experience to local students, event organizers are asking community partners to participate in this BEST season and help to raise $10,000 by Oct. 22 to support this event.
The BEST competition culminates at the end of a six-week period when 32 teams will face off to prove their engineering prowess in front of hundreds of friends, families and fans at Bartow Arena. Using only the materials that are provided in the official game kits, student teams will work to design, develop and test a robot that can outperform its competitors. To accomplish this, students must engage all the STEM disciplines at some level; but the experience they gain from BEST Robotics is about more than STEM. Students learn lessons about teamwork, leadership, problem-solving and sportsmanship that will benefit them in many areas of life. For that reason, BEST participants often return year after year as volunteers.
To learn more about this crowdfunding project or to donate, visit the UAB crowdfunding website.