Outreach

Mountaineer Area Robotics

Mountaineer Area Robotics program has great success in 2018 with their robot MARVIN XI

MARS is an internationally recognized high school robotics team from Morgantown. MARS builds robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition program. Sponsored by the WVU departments of Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics and the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, the MARS program is a world-renown FRC program and earned the highest recognition in FIRST robotics in 2017, placing them permanently in the FRC Hall of Fame. Shown in this reveal video is the 2018 MARS robot MARVIN XI build for the game Power Up.

Check out MARSFIRST.ORG for more information on the MARS program.

VEX Robotics Competition

Sparks Passion for Robotics Among K-12 Students

The event is sponsored by the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering.

For the competition, students were given a challenge in advance and had to design, build, program and drive a robot to complete the challenge as best as they could. More than 50 teams comprised of hundreds of middle and high school students competed in a variety of bracket style elimination tournaments throughout the weekend in order to declare the winners.

The event was judged by the MMAE chair, faculty members and graduate students. Winners of the middle school robotics competition received Engineering Challenge Camp scholarships and winners of the high school competition received Statler College scholarships.

Winners from both divisions will also advance to the state robotics competition, where they will have the chance to move along to the regional competition. Ultimately the goal is to advance to the VEX Robotics World Championships, which will be held in the spring every year. Currently, more than 23,000 VEX teams from upwards of 61 countries participate in over 2,500 robotics competitions worldwide in hopes of making it to the World Championships.

WVU Merit Badge University

This event has become a major single day outreach opportunity for the department. These activities provide an excellent opportunity to welcome scouts into many of the mechanical, materials, aerospace and robotics labs on campus! Students are being exposed to autonomous drones, flight simulation, computational fluid dynamics, engineering, materials science, composites, and robotics. The goal is for scouts to leave knowing how strong WVU is in these fields and the many opportunities that are available for their future.

Statler College Engineering Challenge Camps

Engineering Challenge Camps are designed to help students learn the fun and exciting ways that engineering and computer science impact our lives through hands-on learning. Each camp features a theme that will help students build problem solving skill and to work better in groups. We have camps for Elementary, Middle and High School students.