Toledo Tech Events

This Thursday, August 6th @ 7:00 p.m. Sylvania STEM Center (3315 Centennial, Unit M) will be having our official Ribbon Cutting to officially launch our Center to the community!

The Sylvania STEM Center provides a place for FIRST Teams and other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) based activities can occur.

Please join the Sylvania STEM Center on May 23rd to check out some of the phenomenal things our kids have been doing these past few years.

Sylvania STEM Center accommodates STEM-focused teams ranging from first graders to high school seniors. Our teams compete in a range of leagues that promote STEM education.

Leagues run seasonally with exploratory expos and varying levels of formal competition.

With a 613% growth in just a short time, we continue to expand by offering more opportunities for teams.

We now coordinate two FIRST tournaments, facilitate 26 teams, and several enrichment workshops.

Teams of students from 18 area high schools and middle schools will showcase their talents during the fourth annual Falcon BEST Robotics competition on Oct. 8 at the University.

Game Day kicks off in the Stroh Center at 9:30 a.m. with opening ceremonies, which will begin with a welcome and parade of robots. The competition will follow at 10 a.m. with awards around 3:15 p.m., as the teams and their robots master Bet the Farm 2016, a competition of skill and strategy.

The public is encouraged to attend Game Day to support the teams and their robots as they compete, as all events are free and open to the public.

Area schools with teams competing this year are Anthony Wayne High School, Bowling Green High School, Cardinal Stritch Catholic High School, Carey High School, EHOVE Career Center, Hamilton Southeastern High School, Maumee Valley Country Day School, McComb High School, Millstream Career Center, Patrick Henry High School, Paulding High School, Perrysburg High School, Port Clinton High School, Sandusky Central Catholic School, St. Francis de Sales School, St. Ursula Academy, Sylvania Southview High School, and Vanguard Technology Center.

Students are coached by dedicated and enthusiastic teachers and team mentors, some of which come from the professional tech community. Each team is provided with an identical kit of parts and equipment, and then spends a month and half designing, building and testing a remote-controlled robot that it expects to outperform those created by its competition.

In order to triumph in Bet the Farm each team will engage in tackling a basic but vital human necessity – food production! BLT Farms Inc. run by Mr. Riley Bread and Family, has always done things the old-fashioned way on their family farm. However, new technology and ideas from their children stand to reshape production on the farm itself. The Breads need input from outside companies to determine what new technology is the best to implement on their farm.

The BEST Award is presented to the top three teams that exemplify the concept of BEST – Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology. Criteria include creativity, teamwork, sportsmanship, diversity of participation, application of the engineering design process, ethics, positive attitude/enthusiasm and school/community involvement. Awards are also presented to the top three robotics game teams, and to the top teams that compete in oral presentations, educational displays, project engineering notebook and spirit/sportsmanship.

The BEST competition highlights the talent of local students whose contributions today have the potential to become the creations of tomorrow.

Falcon BEST is sponsored by BGSU’s College of Technology, Architecture and Applied Engineering and the Northwest Ohio Center for Excellence in STEM Educational. Corporate sponsor Lathrop, who has been involved since the first robotics competition, has been joined by First Solar as a sponsor this year. Both companies have committed to supporting the student competition each year.

The support from local corporate sponsors Lathrop and First Solar ensures students the continued opportunity for early involvement in their field of interest, while preparing them to become the industry’s future leaders.

If you are interested in volunteering to help make Game Day possible, please contact: falconbest@bgsu.edu

This course covers the task that an operator would need to job, restart and select programs on a FANUC Robotics Handling Tool software package.

For more information contact Lyn Sullivan 419.367.2646 or lsullivan@terra.edu

This is a 16 hour course. Course cost: $349

02/15/2017 & 02/22/2017 from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm

One of the biggest problems we are facing in manufacturing is a lack of workforce. This is a problem that is not going to go away. We know that one of the best solutions to this issue is automation and robotics. But for many of us in manufacturing in NW Ohio, understanding where to start and to what scope it can help can be a challenge.

To address this, we are hosting, along with Allied Automation, APT and RTSS, an Introduction to Automation in Manufacturing workshop. We will have experienced leaders from both of those companies, along with out CIFT team, to help answer some of the questions you have, as well as demonstrate some of the latest in automation and robotics. You will leave this event with actionable information to allow you to begin ideating and planning projects to address your labor issues through automation.