USD to Host SoCal Botball Tournament

USD to Host SoCal Botball Tournament

The University of San Diego will host the third annual Southern California Botball Tournament Saturday, March 31.  

The robotics competition runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in USD’s Sports Center, just east of the main campus entrance at the top of Linda Vista Road. Students will be available for filming throughout the day but because the robots are light sensitive, the best times for filming are the practice sessions between 8:30 and 10 a.m. and noon and 2 p.m. Finals for the competition will be at approximately 5 p.m. with an awards ceremony to follow.

At the tournament, 31 student teams from grades 7-12 from all over Southern California will participate, bringing their robots they have worked on for seven weeks. Their robots are autonomous and will be performing their tasks without using a remote control.

The event is free and open to the public. Students and families who are interested in math, science, technology, and robots are encouraged to attend.

Botball is an educational program organized by the Norman, Oklahoma-based KISS Institute for Practical Robotics that emphasizes learning basic principles of engineering and programming through direct experience in building and programming working robots. KISS is a National Partner in Education of the NASA Robotics Education Project. USD’s Institute of College Initiatives and the USD Engineering Programs are co-sponsors of the event

The University of San Diego is a Catholic institution of higher learning chartered in 1949; the school enrolls some 7,500 students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The establishment of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies will bring the University’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Leadership and Education Sciences, Law and Nursing and Health Sciences.

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About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.