SuGO Outreach Project 10/10/2011

Thanks to a generous gift from the Naylor Family Trust Fund (awarded through the Community Trust Foundation), the Garrett Engineering And Robotics Society (GEARS) will be making it possible for more Garrett County (Maryland) youth to participate in exciting AND educational Robotics activities.

Complete your online Mini-Grant application here.

Grant recipients should use this Resource Page for downloadable forms, programs and build instructions.

Background: Many youth development organizations, such as 4-H, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, are introducing robotics into their programs, but many clubs lack either the financial resources or technical skills to embrace this essential new technology. To address this problem, GEARS will utilize their popular robotics activity, SuGO, to jumpstart club-based robotics.

SuGO was developed by GEARS as a friendly robotics competition where small teams design and build Sumo Wrestling robots using the LEGO Mindstorms system. GEARS has been running monthly SuGO competitions for the past 5 years, but this new "SuGO Outreach Project" will provide the resources to enable clubs to organize and run their own competitions.

Over the next two years, GEARS will seek out Garrett County clubs interested in learning more about robotics. GEARS will provide these clubs with outreach in the form of hands-on training, and robotic hardware in the form of LEGO Mindstorms kits. The Naylor Grant will be used to purchase the robotics kits for the clubs.

SuGO Outreach Mini-Grants will be available to clubs that meet regularly, operate under a parent organization, and have sufficient youth within the target age-group (8-14 years). Participating clubs will need to attend a training session at the GEARS facility prior to receiving their materials. The Project’s two year goal is to reach 65 clubs and impact 800 youth.

To see how WE run our SuGO competitions, here's a 15 Minute Training video.

For more information, contact Phil Malone: (301) 387-2331, SuGOMaster@GEARSinc.org