Botball Workshops

Hands-On Workshop

The Botball season begins with a 2-day professional development workshop for team leaders, mentors and students. Up to three people from each registered team may attend the regional workshop. During the hands-on workshop, attendees learn about current robotics technology by participating in a variety of interactive exercises and activities.

Receive Your Reusable Robotics Kit

Teams receive their reusable robotics kit at the workshop along with software and documentation. They also receive detailed information regarding the current year's game. Participants will actually use their robotics kit to build and program a demonstration robot at the workshop.

I went to the Botball workshop knowing very little about programming and came out with a working robot that I programmed myself. — Creighton Edington, Teacher

Highly Experienced Workshop Instructors

Botball workshops are taught by specially trained robotics/computer science professionals from a variety of backgrounds. Some of our workshop instructors include:

David Miller

Dr. David Miller is the chair of KISS Institute for Practical Robotics' Technical Advisory Committee as well as a co-founder of KISS Institute. He is also the Wilkonson Chair Professor in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Miller is involved in numerous educational, medical, and space robotics projects.

Charles Winton

Dr. Charles Winton has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel and is Professor Emeritus with the University of North Florida. Involved with Botball since its inaugural season in 1997, he is an active participant at KIPR's annual Botball Instructor's Summit, its Technical Advisory Committee, and its Game Design Committee. He has led numerous Botball workshops at GCER and for various regions around the United States. He is presently the Director for the Florida Botball Region and is Chairman of the Board of Directors of KIPR, which he has been a member of for over 10 years.

Jerry Weinberg

Dr. Jerry Weinberg is Professor of Computer Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Weinberg does research in Artificial intelligence, Mobile Robotics, Human-Computer Interaction, and Robotics in Education. He has been involved with Botball since 2001. He serves as a workshop instructor, head judge, and a member of the Technical Advisory Committee. Dr. Weinberg is the Director of the Greater St. Louis Botball Regional

James Maybury

James Maybury has been involved with Botball since 1998 when he served as a team mentor while attending graduate school. He has served as a workshop instructor and head judge for more than five years. From 1999 through 2004 James was a lecturer in the CS department at UMCP and served as the CS Undergraduate Program Coordinator for 3 years. In 2005 James began working for Applied Resources, Inc. (ARI) developing software for unmanned aerial systems in support of the Department of Defense.

Ross Mead

Ross Mead has been an active participant/competitor in Botball since 2003. He now shares his experiences as an instructor and mentor for the Botball program, as well as in K-12 and university classrooms. Ross graduated with his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 2007 from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. At SIUE, he developed algorithms for the control and interactions of large formations of robots, which later evolved into a Master's Thesis -- the hardware and software platforms used were the same as those used in the Botball program. Ross is now a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Southern California, where he is conducting research on social primitives for embodied communication in human-robot interaction.

Matt Roman

Matt Roman is a Ph.D. student at the University of Oklahoma with emphasis on planetary robotics. He has designed, built and field tested various autonomous robotic prototypes for Mars and Lunar exploration. While at OU he has taught courses on control systems and solid mechanics and assisted on projects including circuit design, computer aided manufacturing and embedded computer systems. His work at the KISS Institute for Practical Robotic has lead to be a co-designer of the CBC Botball Controller.