Avnet Tech Games to Test Students' Science Skills Under Fire

More than 180 students from 14 colleges and universities in Arizona will compete in nine competitions at the Avnet Tech Games at the UAT campus in Tempe on Saturday. More than 600 participants from the nation are expected in the virtual games happening this spring. The technology-oriented games challenge students to build robots, computers, data networks, solar devices and more. Each winning student receives a $1,000 scholarship. Teri Radosevich, Avnet's vice president of community relations, explains why the games, now in their sixth year, are important in our high-tech society.

College Times: How did the Avnet Tech Games come about?

Teri Radosevich: At the very beginning, we just did the games with the Maricopa Community Colleges. We felt that high-tech did a lot with K-12 and the universities, but we weren't really partnering with the community colleges. So we saw that as a hole that needed to be filled. So we created the Avnet Tech Games as a way to help community college students gain the skills that they would need to work in a high-tech environment. And after doing that for two years, we thought, ‘You know, this is really pertinent to everybody.' So we expanded and opened it up to all colleges and universities in Arizona. Now we have the tech games of today where we've got students from dozens of schools across the state and we've got really good depth and breadth within each of the colleges within the schools and each of the different disciplines.

You've recently added virtual games, correct?

Yes, students are competing this Saturday, April 9 in the on-site games. But last year we added virtual games so that students nationwide could compete year round. This is the second year for that and we've had great success and increases in numbers overall. There were two competitions in the fall and there are five this spring.

Can you explain the newest virtual game you've added?

We're really excited about the Digital Design Challenge because it reflects the change in curriculum that has happened over the last several years that the Avnet Tech Games helped bring about.

Are the virtual games done online?

Yes. They're all different. Each game is completely on its own. We're particularly excited about the newest one, the Digital Design Challenge, because it represents a curriculum change over time. This is the game that we wanted to do when we first launched the Avnet Tech Games six years ago. But we found out that what was being taught in the colleges was old information and it wasn't what we needed for real world experiences. So one of the faculty members worked with the Avnet people and they got grants and they worked to evolve and change this curriculum over time. Now the games that the students are participating in reflect real world skills that they would need to get a job in engineering.

What are the common majors of the students that compete?

There are three or four different categories. One is we do a lot of engineering-related games. We also have several IT/MIS-related games. And this year we're really focusing on green or environmental, sustainability. We also have students from business schools who can participate in a number of the games.

Tell us more about the Solar Scrimmage game.

The Solar Scrimmage is our brand new game that we've never done before. We're really excited.

How is it going to be a standout from the other competitions?

Well we think this game is going to be our media darling now. You know, in the past everybody wanted to see the robots. And it's very frustrating to us because the Avnet Tech Games are so multi-disciplinary. There are so many different parts to it and everybody just wants to watch the robots. So now we're hoping that they're going to be able to go over and watch the solar game that will be just as fascinating and interesting. The way that this game is going to work is we've got it designed so that it's going to be interesting and entertaining. The students do have to build a solar water pump. They're going to have to pump water from one place to a higher spot using solar power. So this whole water pumping and distribution system that they're going to be building is going to be visually exciting and stimulating so (spectators) can see what's going on. People watching it can figure out what's happening just by observing it.

How did the solar challenge originate?

This is a really interesting story. The Avnet Tech Games now have become such a part of the Valley of the Sun, of the community. It's such a gift that we've given to the community that we now have community partners who come to us and say, ‘We would really like to be involved. We think this is a wonderful program. And we think by us getting involved, we can help affect more change, involve more students and help make this community be a better place.' So some community partners came to us and said ‘We would like to make up a game.' They worked with some of our technical people at Avnet in tandem and they invented this solar game together. We ran it past the faculty and said, ‘Ok, this is what we want to do. Is this something that's in the realm of possibility? Is this something that your students would be interested in doing?' Because every time we invent a new game, we want to make sure that we're pushing the envelope in the classroom. We want to make sure this is something that they can do, but that they're not already doing. We want to take it beyond what they're doing in school and make sure that there's a real world application to it.