REGISTRATION OPEN: Zero Robotics High School Tournament 2012

NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s, or MIT’s, Space Systems Laboratory are proud to announce that the next Zero Robotics High School Tournament will take place this fall, offering high school students the opportunity to design experiments that will be tested in space.

Zero Robotics challenges high school student teams to write their own algorithms to fly the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES. The competition starts online where teams compete to solve an annual challenge guided by mentors. Students can create, edit, share, save, simulate and submit code, all from a Web browser. After several phases of virtual competition, finalists are selected to compete in a live championship aboard the International Space Station!

Teams may register now:
1) Go to http://zerorobotics.mit.edu/.
2) Log In or Create an Account. (Note: You can start programming in the online integrated development environment at this point!)
3) Click “Tournaments” and register for the High School Tournament.
4) Create a team and invite other users.
5) Visit Resources to get started.

The competition starts on Sept. 8, 2012 with a live webcast kickoff, and you can try out the site right now just by creating an account.

The Zero Robotics High School Tournament 2012 is brought to you by NASA and DARPA, and facilitated by the MIT Space Systems Laboratory, TopCoder and Aurora Flight Sciences.

To see a promotional video for the competition, visit http://www.youtube.com/roboticsinspace.

Please email any questions about this opportunity to zerorobotics@mit.edu.