L.A. hobbyists seek $1.5 million prize in NASA Mars robot challenge

Photos: Topanga Man Builds Robot To Compete For $1.5 Million NASA Prize LOS ANGELES — When NASA takes the next big step in Mars exploration – retrieving a rock sample and bringing it safely back to Earth – it might have to thank a few dedicated hobbyists who are doing the hardscrabble work to develop a robot that can drive itself. Fourteen teams, some of them just lone builders working in their spare time, are competing in the NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge, now in its second year, with a $1.5 million prize at stake. Each team is working on an autonomous robot that can recognize objects in a grassy field and go pick them up, without relying on human control or Earth-based technology such as GPS. Continue reading

Cris Cyborg, Ronda Rousey, and the magic numbers that add up to a superfight

Back in the fall of 2012, Mike Dolce flew out to Southern California to meet with Cris Cyborg. At the time, the former Strikeforce featherweight champion was preparing to return from a one-year suspension for a positive steroids test, and looking forward to turning the page. Continue reading

NASA Kicks Off 20th Great Moonbuggy Race

April 26, 2013 Image Credit: NASA / MSFC / Pay Downward Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online NASAs annual Great Moonbuggy Race kicked off today in Huntsville, Alabama, marking 20 years since the competition began. The annual Great Moonbuggy Race involves high school- and college-aged students who build lightweight, human-powered moonbuggies that address many of the same design challenges NASA and industry engineers overcame during the Apollo missions. In the late 1960s, NASA engineers designed the Apollo-era Lunar Roving Vehicles to allow astronauts to range across the harsh lunar surface. Continue reading

Tech hosts artificial intelligence competition

HOUGHTON – An artificial intelligence competition held Saturday at Michigan Technological University put an impressive display of human intelligence on display. Tech’s Husky Game Development Enterprise and Women in Computing Science student organizations hosted more than 50 teams of (mostly) programmers in an all-day (9 a.m. Continue reading

NASA and TopCoder to issue Robonaut 2 ‘sight’ challenge

Posted at 02:42 PM ET, 03/29/2013 Mar 29, 2013 06:42 PM EDT View Photo Gallery:The first humanoid robot in space has been there for two years. Robonaut 2 arrived in February 2011 and was unpacked the next month Continue reading

Freedom High misses grand prize in national Samsung competition

OAKLEY — Freedom High School here has lost out on the grand prize in a national contest for a wealth of technology. Sponsored by Samsung, the competition recently awarded prizes to five grand prize winners, one of which was determined by the number of votes schools received from the public Continue reading

Freedom High gardening students counting on public votes to win tech prize

OAKLEY — Freedom High School has moved into the finals of a national competition that could bring it a truckload of technology. And anyone who wants to see that happen can give the Oakley campus a thumbs up with the click of a mouse Continue reading

Summit Day 2 Increasing Health Care Access, Choice and Competition throughout Florida – Video




Summit Day 2 Increasing Health Care Access, Choice and Competition throughout Florida Increasing Health Care Access, Choice competition throughout Florida panel, moderated by Senator Denie Grimsley – Chair, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Health Human Services By: HealthCareFLSummit Continue reading

Liberty University Quiz Bowl Team Wins Conference Championship

The Liberty University Quiz Bowl team took home its seventh Big South Conference championship in eight years Saturday at Gardner-Webb University, going undefeated for the third-straight year. (PRWEB) January 29, 2013 The team posted a 6-0 record in the competition, which is part of the conferences Academic Consortium, designed to develop institutional relationships outside of athletics Continue reading

Pacific Islands unlikely for Super Rugby expansion

As Super Rugby expansion looms, the Pacific Islands appear set to be left out in the cold, yet again. This year, the three Sanzar nations will debate whether to expand the competition in 2016, as part of a new broadcast deal. The introduction of the United States and Canada into the Pacific Nations Cup, and comments from Sanzar chief executive Greg Peters this week, confirmed those countries were being viewed as possible destinations. Continue reading

Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition Now Open for 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Winning photograph in the Earth and Space category in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year Competition, ‘Star Icefall’ by Masahiro Miyasaka (Japan) Continue reading