The kiss institute for practical robotics has over twenty years experience producing high quality national and international level autonomous robotics programs, which directly align with NASA goals…

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $716,517.55 cooperative agreement to the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics (KIPR) to support the Botball Educational Robotics Program. The program aims to attract and retain students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, particularly in artificial intelligence and engineering, through participation in robotics competitions. The agreement will fund the recruitment of new teams and sustain existing teams, as well as support regional events and the annual Global Conference on Educational Robotics, where NASA engineers provide presentations to student participants. This award is not designated as a set-aside contract.

The kiss institute for practical robotics has over twenty years experience producing high quality national and international level autonomous robotics programs, which directly align with NASA goals and objectives for the ROC II. Key objectives to strengthen nasas and the nations future workforce by attracting and retaining students in the stem pipeline through participation in the botball educational robotics program. There is a lack of students in stem related fields. This is especially true for artificial intelligence and engineering. Most students unless they have the opportunity to take an engineering or computer science class in middle or high school are not aware of the field of artificial intelligence its ties to engineering and the critical implications to future NASA robotic space exploration goals and missions. The other main objective is to engage and make the public aware of nasas mission and objectives so that they understand the importance and value to our country of autonomous robotics technologies for the future of space exploration. Techniques participation in the botball program will cover all of the goals and objectives of the ROC II a including all of the milestones. The botball program is about long term impact and for that reason IT emphasizes teacher development and provides reusable equipment to the school. The program starts with teachers and students attending a two-day hands-on professional development workshop. In the workshop they learn to teach some of the associated applied skills as they work with the robotics equipment. At the workshop they discuss ways to utilize the botball materials to support extend and enrich their classroom curriculum. The applied skills emphasized include; robotics engineering, project management, presentation skills team working skills computer programming website development technical writing electronics research and design and real life applications of physics scientific methodology math problem solving geometry and trigonometry. Because all botball robots are autonomous and no remote control is involved students must learn to program their robots c c++ java or python in order to successfully compete. The teams have about seven weeks after the professional development workshop to design build program performance test and document a collaborative team of autonomous robots to play in a tournament. The tournament game is thematic and designed to have a hierarchy of multiple scoring options which motivates teams to focus on multiple game playing strategies and resulting robot designs. The tournament is the culmination of many hours of hard work and effort on the part of the students and the teachers. IT is a motivating and high energy competition that is well attended by the public and press and provides a good platform to engage the public in nasas missions and objectives. Support will be used to recruit new teams and to sustain the participation of existing teams through competitive mini-grants as well as for the support of regional events and the international championships held during the annual global conference on educational robotics. At this conference NASA engineers as well as other engineering roboticists give presentations to student participants. Significance this proposal will lead to a significant increase in the number of students and teachers participating in the botball program. IT will facilitate the recruitment and participation of new students as well as allowing for the continued support and engagement of existing participants ensuring that the stem pipeline is full of students who have not only an interest and an awareness in artificial intelligence and robotics engineering but also some significant technical preparation working with cutting edge technology. The events held around the country will help to inform the public about the importance of robotic technologies in furthering nasas missions and objectives.