STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Math — is one of the most important programs in schools today. Leveraging BattleBots as a tool to teach all four principles, Citrix is very proud to continue to inspire the world’s future engineers.
[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world… — President Barack Obama, March 23, 2015
Citrix sponsored International NodeBots Day in Phoenix, AZ (home of Octoblu, Citrix’ IoT platform). Students, adults, and families gathered to build and fight robots similar to our BattleBot competition at Citrix Synergy. Unlike at Synergy, we used 4-wheel drive robots rather than 2-wheel drive and had 8 hours to build and fight rather than just 3.
The rules were still the same — push the opponent’s bot off the 5-foot octagon platform or disable the opponent’s bot — and you win!
BattleBots is a super-fun way to experience science, technology, engineering, and math bundled into a single event. Builders followed instructions on how to assemble their bot chassis and wire their Intel TinyTile microcontrollers. Plenty of popsicle sticks, googly eyes, and hot glue were available to decorate and weaponize these cute battlebots. Here are photos of a few of the bots getting ready for battle.
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16 bots battled for the championship title. The final battle ended up between DragonWagon and HappyMonster. Here’s a video of the final battle!
While the official winner was DragonWagon, everyone who participated in this battlebot competition walked away being a winner! There was plenty of science, technology, engineering, and math disguised in a fun game of robotics. A special thanks to Citrix for sponsoring this event as well as to Luis Montes for hosting this event and Sheldon McGee for building the octagon!
