On Saturday, Oct. 31, 32 high school robotics teams from across the Midwest will bring the robots they designed and built this year to Wayne High School (9100 Winchester Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46819) for Monster Match, a Halloween-themed FIRST Robotics Competition offseason event presented by Tech Fest and The REFINERY. The day brings together a robotics competition, a college and career fair, and a costume contest. It is the largest offseason event of its kind in Northeast Indiana. The robots start with an unusual assignment. Every January, FIRST Robotics Competition releases a brand-new game to more than 3,700 high school teams worldwide at the same moment, and teams have about two months to design and build a machine to play it before competitions begin in March. This year’s game, REBUILT, asked robots to collect foam balls, shoot them into a goal on a 54-foot field, and climb a tower in the final seconds of each match. The robots can weigh up to 115 pounds. Students do the work: they design in CAD, machine the metal parts, wire the electronics, write the code, and drive in matches where alliances of three robots play against another three. Teams also run like small companies, raising their own money, recruiting sponsors, and managing their own budgets. Students become eligible for more than $80 million in college scholarships. FIRST, founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, calls it a varsity sport for the mind. Offseason events like Monster Match give teams one more chance to compete with this year’s robots and a chance to train newer members before the next game is released in January. Because it falls on Halloween, Monster Match also holds costume contests for teams and individuals. In the same building, colleges, employers, and trade and technical schools will host a college and career fair, putting students in front of the regional employers who need the skills they use to build a robot. Families can trick-or-treat through the exhibitor booths, stop at a robot photo booth, and watch matches throughout the day. Monster Match is a collaboration between TechFest and The REFINERY. The REFINERY is Northeast Indiana’s first robotics-only dedicated facility, a nonprofit makerspace at Electric Works operated by BioNanomics, a registered 501(c)(3). It gives FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge teams across a 12-county region the shop space, fabrication equipment, training, and mentorship that many of them could not afford on their own. For more information about the event email: [email protected] or visit teamconvene.org/event/the-refinery/monster-match. ...read more read less