FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS CONTACT: Elizabeth Martin
April 17, 2000
(505) 989-1733
empr@sprynet.com

BEAM ROBO-AESTHETICS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
BRINGS TOGETHER KIDS, SCIENTISTS, ARTISTS
FOR WEEKEND OF HOT-ROD SOLAR ROBOTS

Santa Fe Art Institute, Los Alamos National Labs to Collaborate on Project

(Santa Fe, NM) Call it a left-brain, right-brain collision. One hundred students from around the world will team up with artists with the Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) and top robotics experts from Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) for a weekend of building solar race car, robotic sumo wrestler, and aesthetic robot building. The project, known as the International BEAM Robotics 2000 Conference takes place May 4-7 at SFAI on the campus of the College of Santa Fe.

The students, who range from kindergartners to seniors in high school, are asked to bring to the conference broken electronic devices -- remote controls, tape players, toy robots, motors, gears, solar cells, transistors -- anything with "robotic" potential. They work with scientists to create robots that are both aesthetically pleasing and scientifically sound.

The robots, whose workings are modeled more on the movement of insects than on what we think of as "robots," will meld simple robotics kits provided by LANL and the collections of "junk" provided by the student participants. They are solar-powered, with no computer chips. The robot will control its own actions. Knowledge of circuitry and math are key components of creating these robots.

Mark W. Tilden, the internationally known robotics physicist, leads the conference. "Putting experimental skills back into the hands of the humans, not the machines, is what we're about," says Tilden.

"What excites me about me this collaboration is introducing students to a different medium," says SFAI director Kerry Benson. "It has an impact because they need to learn a variety of skills in order to build a robot. It involves mathematics, circuitry, aesthetics, and how much weight the robot can handle to operate. The thing I think is most important is getting these students in touch with their inventive selves," she added. "We are so thrilled to be able to host the conference this year."

This is the first year that the conference will emphasize an aesthetics component. Robots will be judged, and prizes awarded, on the best speed racers, the best sumo wrestlers, and the most artistically or aesthetically exciting entries.

Chris Langton, one of the pioneers of "artificial life" will be on hand to give a keynote lecture on May 4. "There are aesthetics in the function, as well as in the form, of living organisms. Attempting to capture aspects of that aesthetics of function by crating artifacts like robots is a great way for kids-or adults-to appreciate the deep unity between the sciences and the arts," Langton says.

This is the ninth year of the International BEAM Robotics Games Conference, now on six continents. LANL's Science Education Outreach office and SFAI sponsor this year's sessions.

BEAM is the educational branch of the new Biomorphic Robotic science field. It is the acronym for biology, electronics, aesthetics and mechanics.

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Click here for a schedule of events.

The Santa Fe Art Institute, an independent educational non-profit organization founded in 1985, is committed to programs that enhance and promote the visual arts as an essential element of American culture and society.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has designed a variety of educational programs to provide hands-on experiences in science, mathematics, engineering and technology to teachers and students. Using its unique resources, the Laboratory aims to enrich and motivate today's science educators and tomorrow's science teachers.