This year’s festival continues to get bigger and better with new additions happening all the way up to opening day. This year, the Geek Show Podcast will be joining the DIY Festival as part of the sumo bot competition. Panelists Kerry Jackson, Shannon Barnson, Jimmy Martin, Jay Whittaker and Jeff Vice will be on hand to announce, judge and add color commentary to the festivities as builders compete with mini-bots to prove they are the best! Plus, the panel will also be honoring select bots and their makers with specialty awards throughout the day. The competition will take place on Saturday, August 10, from 12-4 p.m. in the DIY Engineer building.
The tournament will be conducted sumo-style, where two opposing bots (some remote controlled by their creators, and other autonomously running in the ring themselves) will fight to push each other out of the ring. The competition will feature mini-bots with specific size and weight restrictions, giving builders and experimenters both a chance to show off their creative skills as well as an opportunity to overcome mechanical restrictions and challenges. In order to help make the tournament fair and competitive, Craft Lake City has partnered with engineer Peter Reed and robotic builder Michael Anderson, who will both be overseeing the rules, submissions and gameplay throughout the festival. All trophies awarded that day will be the Craft Lake City 3-D Robots, printed up by GoEngineer, who are also featured in the DIY Engineer building. You can read up on the competition and robot fanatics in this month’s issue of SLUG Magazine. For more info and to register your a bot, visit the Sumo Bot Competition area on CraftLakeCity.com.
“We’re very excited to have the show involved with this year’s festival,” says Craft Lake City’s Executive Director, Angela Brown. “Their show has helped influence the engineering end of the community in several ways, along with their many contributions to the art of podcasting. Each of the panelists will bring their own unique insight and personality to the festivities, and will make this year’s competition an exciting and fun event for those who attend and participate.”
