Qatar Academy wins CMU-Q’s Botball
QA team edges out the competition in the 14th annual robotics competition
The 14th annual Botball competition went down to the wire, with Qatar Academy narrowly edging out Doha Secondary and the Lebanese School to take the overall title. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) has hosted the robotics competition for high school students since 2005; there were 21 teams who competed in Botball 2018.
As the first place team, the Qatar Academy students won a trip to Carnegie Mellon’s main campus in Pittsburgh, where they will visit the world-renowned School of Computer Science.
Michael Trick, dean of CMU-Q, commented: “Botball encourages high school students to solve problems using computational language, which is at the heart of all computer science. I am delighted that these talented young people can explore the opportunities that Carnegie Mellon has to offer in computer science.”
The winning team will visit Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center, as well as the Pittsburgh Science and Technology Academy and the Google offices that specialize in computer systems, networking, machine learning, computer vision, and route planning.
Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science (SCS) is a world leader in computer science education and research. The Carnegie Mellon campus in Qatar offers two undergraduate SCS programs: the bachelor of science in computer science and the bachelor of science in computational biology.
2018 Qatar Botball® Tournament results
Overall
The Overall winners for Botball® are determined by Double Elimination rank, Seeding Round scores and Online and Onsite Documentation scores.
1 Qatar Academy Doha
2 Doha Secondary School
3 Lebanese School of Qatar
4 Tariq Bin Ziad Secondary School
5 Doha Secondary School for Boys
Double Elimination
Robots from two different teams compete on the game board simultaneously in an effort to score as many points as possible, but also to keep their opponent from scoring. Double Elimination placement makes up about one-third of the overall Botball® score.
1 Lebanese School of Qatar
2 Tariq Bin Ziad Secondary School
3 Qatar Academy Doha
4 Doha College
Seeding
In the Seeding Rounds, teams run their robots unopposed and attempt to score the most points possible. Seeding round scores determine initial placement in the Double Elimination bracket and account for about one-third of each team’s overall score.
1 Doha Secondary School
2 Qatar Academy Doha
3 Doha Secondary School for Boys
4 Lebanese School of Qatar
Outstanding Documentation
Botball® teams are required to complete documentation covering their work on their competition robots. Documentation scores determine about one-third of each team’s overall score.
American School of Doha
Judge’s Choice Trophies
Throughout the tournament, the judges select teams to be singled out for Judges’ Choice trophies for excellence in a variety of categories.
Overall Judges’ Choice
Lebanese School of Qatar
Spirit of Botball®
AlBayan Secondary School
Keep it Simple Award
Doha College
Judges Choice Awards
Throughout the tournament, the judges select teams to be singled out for Judges’ Choice awards for excellence in a variety of categories.
Outstanding Engineering
English Modern School
Outstanding Engineering
Triq bin Ziyad
Outstanding Rookie Team
Aleiman Secondary School
Outstanding Sub-System
Doha Secondary School