Botball Teams To Descend On Hanalani Schools

Hanalani Schools will host the annual Regional Botball Tournament this Saturday in its Student Activity Center.

The Botball Educational Robotics Program engages middle and high school students in team-oriented robotics competition. Students have nine to 12 weeks to design, create and program two autonomous robots using standardized components provided to them in the Botball game kit.

Hanalani has been regional champion the last four years, and Chenfu Chiang, STEM Academy head and robotics coach at Hanalani Schools, believes they have a good chance for a fifth consecutive title.

“We are very excited for this new school year,” he said. “We have high expectations again. Our goal is to ‘five-peat’ the Hawaii regional championship and also try to win our third International Botball championship.

“We have a great robotics program at Hanalani, and many of our robotics students receive scholarships in STEM-related fields.”

Botball robots are autonomous units that respond to information from a program written by the students as well as information from onboard sensors that detect changes in light, distance, color and other parameters.

Registration and open practice begin at 8 a.m., and seeding rounds begin at 10. Admission is free and open to the public.

For more information, go to botball.org/hi/2014/tournament.