The competition will pit 8- to 14-year-olds from elementary and middle schools around Berkshire County against each other in a robotic battle royale.
“We have 15 teams this year, and roughly, probably, about seven to eight kids on a team. So, I would say up to 150, because it can be 10 per team," said Denise Johns, Business Administrator at the Berkshire Innovation Center and coordinator of the Berkshire Robotics Challenge. The BIC sponsors the yearly event.
“The students have to build a robot out of LEGO pieces," Johns explained. "It has to be a LEGO brick piece to build the robot. And then they use a program called SPIKE Prime to kind of do the coding. So, it's a real simple entry-level type of coding that they're doing.”
Each year, the competition has a new theme.
“This year's theme is called ‘Super Powered.’ So, it's about energy and how energy is stored and how it's used," Johns told WAMC. "They compete on a tabletop, and all of the challenges that they'll be doing will be based on kind of that theme of ‘Super Powered.’”
One of the individual challenges involves a LEGO windmill.
“You have to program the robot to push a button on the windmill," said Johns. "And if you get the finesse just right, it loosens these energy units, and then you get points for each of the energy units that’s released.”
Last year’s competition saw a final round battle between the Raging Riots from St. Mary’s School of Lee and the Husky Four from Herberg Middle School of Pittsfield.
Organizer Bernie Klem announced the victor.
“They scored 200 points in the final round, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the champion of the 2022 Berkshire Robotics Challenge: Herberg Middle School, with 250,” said Klem as the audience burst into applause.
Outscoring opponents isn’t the only category in which participants will be acknowledged.
“There's an award for best team spirit, best sportsmanship, comeback kids," said Johns. "So, there’s four rounds, so, the team who had the biggest point comeback. There's an against all odds award so that, something happens like they lose all their programming and they have to start from scratch, they could be eligible for the against all odds award. So, there are a lot of ways that they can be competitive and win awards.”
In addition to the challenge itself, the young people will hear a keynote address from SolaBlock CEO Eric Planey.
“SolaBlock is a [Berkshire Innovation Center] member company," said Johns. "And they have a technology of having solar panels on bricks. I think he's really just going to talk about what SolaBlock is doing in the realm of renewable energy and just, the importance of it.”
Based on the international FIRST LEGO League Challenge – which boasts thousands of teams from around the world – Johns says the Berkshire Robotics Challenge has its fair share of drama.
“There have been some real upsets over the years," she told WAMC. "It really does have the feel of a sports arena. It's just that level of excitement and the kids are really cheering on each other. So, it really does have that feel of being very exciting.”
The challenge kicks off with Planey’s speech at 9 a.m., and after four rounds of competition and a playoff, a winner will be crowded around 1.
“It's just a great opportunity for young students to get involved in STEM, and it's in a really fun, exciting, easy entry into the world of coding and mechanical design," said Johns. "And I think it's, every year, it's so much fun, and that everybody has so much fun, the participants and the parents coming to watch and the spectators. So, it's just a great, great event all around.”
