PO Box 5587 Fax: 0866 483 986 Vanderbijlpark, 1900 Cell: +27 82 479 2714 pieter@trophyrobotics.co.za http://robofest.trophyrobotics.co.za/

18 January 2017 To whom it may concern

The Objective of this proposal:

To promote the Robofest robotics competition in 25 schools in Gauteng during

2017.

Welcome to the 2016-2017 Robofest Season

Robofest is Lawrence Technological University’s international autonomous robotics

program for students in 4th grade through college. Student teams design, construct,

and program their robots to act independently and compete for trophies in a variety of

competitions.

Robofest’s mission is to generate excitement among young people for Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), develop creativity and problem

solving skills, and prepare them to excel in higher education and technological

careers.

Current development

As robotics technology develops, we have found that wireless and bluetooth

communication with robots have become increasingly more important especially for

children who want to quickly build a robot, and then play with it. But, there are so

much more than instant gratification in robotics! We would like to invite your

company/business to become part of the Robofest drive in South Africa and guide our

young learners to take the correct road through the design process to not just be a

player with a robot, but a skilled adult in the future in problem solving.

Many children/schools already bought robotics kits, the LEGO Mindstorms kits, but

there are a lot of schools as well as children who cannot afford to buy the LEGO

products (primary school) or VEX/Tetrix sets (high school).

It is therefore our mission to setup Robofest development workshops at 25 schools.

The idea is to show the learners a simple, but effective way, to solve the 2017

RoboHit gameplay challenge. We believe that the challenge should be motivational as

well as inspiring. The 2017 Robofest challenge satisfy both these requirements, while

it is also challenging enough for everyone.

Inspiration

Our purpose with the workshops is to show the learners that they can actually do

robotics; that it is inspiring, but also to give the top team of each workshop the

opportunity to compete in the national Robofest robotics challenge in 2018. The

limiting factor to do this, is the availability of Robotics kits and tablets at schools.

We are therefore looking for business involvement to enable the winning team of each

workshop to compete in official competitions (25 Robotics kits as well as 25

Windows tablets). We aim to put these sets on loan to all the winning teams of the

workshops for the duration of the competition season. The schools or teams will have

to re-apply for the set for the next season else we will have the set available for

another school or another team.

Finances

Items Quantity Cost per unit

EV 3 Robotics kit 25 R180 000.00

Windows Tablets 25 Unknown

Prizes for winning teams Per year R 10 000.00

VEX robotics kits 25 $850 each – shipping

excluded

Total

Description of the Workshops

1 workshop per school @ 20 learners in a workshop - limited only by the equipment

we currently have available

Each workshop will be 2½ hours.

The first 30 minutes of the workshop will be an orientation on how to work

with the tablet and program the robot.

The workshop is set up in such a way that spectators can watch from the sides.

The teams then will have 2 hours to register 2 scores on the playing field.

The teams will be ranked according to their averages between their scores.

The team with the highest average will be the winning team for that specific

workshop.

Advertising Rights

By sponsoring the workshop material (robots and tablets) the sponsor will get:

1. Branding rights at all the workshops

2. Be mentioned on the Robofest SA website as a national sponsor.

3. For the next year all the workshops will be promoted as the Robofest-(Sponsor

Name) workshops.

4. The workshop robots and tablets will be branded with the sponsors’ logo .

5. The national teams going to the Robofest world championship in June (in

Florida, USA) will also be branded with the sponsors’ logo on their clothes.

6. (Branding provided by the sponsor).

Expected return on investment.

It is very difficult to add monetary value to the educational side of robotics and what a

sponsorship of this kind will produce in terms of a return on investment for the

sponsors. However I do believe that the association of the sponsor with the drive of

robotics technology will have long term benefits for learners who are interested in

engineering and technology. Knowing that there are sponsors interested in the

robotics and control technology drive in South Africa will have an impact on a lot of

learners who still have to decide which career paths they are interested in. They may

just become the future workforce of your company.

List of Current Sponsors 1. Trophy Robotics - supplying staff for competitions/workshops, technical

support and day-to-day operations of Robofest SA.

2. North West University in the Vaal Triangle (venue sponsor for official

competitions)

Rights holders Robofest - Director for South Africa

Pieter Pretorius

pieter@trophyrobotics.co.za

Cell phone: 082 479 2714

Background Information of Robofest

Robofest is a festival of competitions and events with autonomous robots that

encourages students to have fun while learning principles of Science, Technology,

Engineering, and Math (STEM) and Computer Science. Students design, construct,

and program the robots. Any robotics kits are allowed in the construction of robots.

Robots can be programmed with any programming language.

Robofest programs support Computer Science for All.

Since 2000, over 20,000 students have competed in Robofest, including teams from

13 US States, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, England, France, Ghana,

Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and South Africa.

A new challenge is released annually in October when the gaming season starts. This

gives the learners enough time to conceive, design, build and program a robot that is

capable of conquering the challenge. This year the challenge is “RoboHit”. It is a

robotic “baseball” game that will challenge the learners with skills in science

engineering, mathematics and programming.

Robofest South Africa

South Africa became a partner of the Robofest competition in 2014 through the

negotiation of Trophy Robotics. We needed a new competition to encourage high

school learners to also participate in robotics. Up to 2014, we only had competitions

that were very specific in the type of robots and programming language that a team or

individual could use. Robofest however, is an open platform competition. Any type of

robot, with any programming language can be used. This is a very encouraging

development for high school learners. Furthermore Robofest also allows individuals

to participate in the competition. No other robotics competition does that.

Through the Trophy Robotics clubs we have found in the past that a lot of learners

prefer to work alone. Now, for the first time, these individuals also have a competition

where they can show off their skills.

The philosophy of Robofest is to be as inclusive as possible. That is the reason why

the competition is setup as described. Building your own robot and not using a pre-

assembled kit, makes it a lot cheaper for a lot of learners. Affordability in our country

is a very important aspect of robotics competitions.

We already have a proud record in the competition. In 2014 and 2015 South Africa

won the Senior Exhibition at the world competition. We also achieved a second place

in the Junior Exhibition category. It is time now to grab the attention in the strategic

gameplay…

We trust that this short description will grab your imagination as to what this

competition can do for the country.

It is still small, but we do believe that the competition will show marked growth in

2017 as we introduce more and more schools and learners to the fun and excitement

of Robofest.

Conclusion

As director of Robofest South Africa I would like to thank you for reading through

this proposal and I trust that we will be able to form a partnership in the development

of Robofest which I believe will benefit your business as well as our country in the

future.

Pieter Pretorius

Director Robofest SA

082 479 2714

pieter@trophyrobotics.co.za

Who is Pieter Pretorius?

Pieter is responsible for the development of the robotics club system in South Africa. He has

started the first robotics clubs in the Vaal Triangle and since then it has grown all over the

country. (www.trophyrobotics.co.za)

He was also responsible for setting up the first intercontinental live EARLY robotics challenge

over the internet between school teams from Texas and South Africa in 2003.

(http://www.earlyrobotics.org/)

In 2004 Pieter successfully negotiated with FIRST USA and LEGO Denmark to enable South

Africa to become the 14th country in the world to participate in FIRST Robotics competitions.

(www.usfirst.org)

In 2008 Pieter handed over the FIRST group of robotics programs to Tshwane University of

Technology and helped them to grow the competition to become the flagship of robotics

competitions in South Africa. (www.fllsa.org ) The current Operational partner for South

Africa is Johannes de Vries.

In 2014 Pieter negotiated with Lawrence Technological University in Michigan to enable

South Africa to become part of Robofest. (www.robofest.trophyrobotics.co.za )

In 2015 Pieter also set up the Destructobots competition as an entry level competition for

learners.(http://www.destructobots.trophyrobotics.co.za/destructobots/ )

Pieter has been involved with robotics for nearly 2 decades. He has trained numerous

international teams. He has judged at world events and his teams have won many trophies

over the years. He also worked with and trained staff from different schools and Science

Centres around the country.