For the third year in a row, UALR’s George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) will host students from 15 schools across Arkansas at the BEST – Boosting Engineering Science and Technology – Robotics Competition from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at the UALR Field House next to the Donaghey Student Center.

Oscar Washington, director of customer service for Entergy Arkansas, will be on hand at 10:30 a.m. to present a $30,000 check from the Entergy Foundation to support EIT outreach programs, including BEST Robotics, and address the more than 130 students who will participate.

Competing teams have built robots designed to pick up and transport bugs that have escaped from a hypothetical research facility to a safe location. The competition will be held on a 24-by-24-foot BEST game field filled with a variety of obstacles.

The field was constructed as a class project by students in UALR’s construction management program. Four teams will place their robots on the game field and maneuver them as their robots collect and safely transport the bugs back to their respective home bases. Each match will last three minutes.

Teams will be representing Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs; Two Rivers High School in Ola; J.A. Fair High School, Fuller Middle School, Mabelvale Middle School, eSTEM High School, and Central High School, all in Little Rock;  Ouachita High School in Donaldson; Watson Chapel High School in Pine Bluff; Poyen High School; Stuttgart High School; Hamburg High School; Bauxite High School; Benton High School; and Lakeside High School.

The top four teams will advance to the regional competition in December at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.