BEST, which stands for Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology, began at TI in Sherman in 1993 and has spread nationwide to include over 20,000 public, private, and home school students. It is a six weeks robotics competition in which students are given a “kit” with materials such as plywood, PVC, a little plexiglass and sheet metal, four motors and servos, and have to construct a robot to accomplish a particular goal. The 2017 theme is fire and rescue, and teams had to create a robot which simulated rescuing a victim from an industrial explosion, retrieving barrels of chemicals, and putting out the fire by shooting ping-pong balls at plastic cups.
Teams portray themselves as startup companies at a trade show, giving a marketing presentation to a panel of investors, and constructing and staffing an exhibit booth. Teams also drive their robots in a series of head-to-head competitions.
The BEST award is a composite score based on a team’s robot performance, creating an engineering notebook documenting their design and production process, the presentation to judges, the exhibit information booth, and overall spirit and sportsmanship. Anabelle Graham, a second-year student, noted “Being on T.H.E.’s robotics team has taught me so much about not just engineering, but also about the marketing aspect of a company and about sportsmanship.”