The 2008 RoboCup world event will take place from July 14 to July 20 at the Suzhou International Expo Center in Suzhou, China.

From May 2nd to May 5th our BattleBots team will engage in its yearly combat exercises at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida.

The 16th Annual IGVC will take place May 30 - June 2, 2008 at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

This Wednesday and Thursday we are opening the polls for officer elections. Come by the Tin at 6:00 on Wednesday to hear the candidates give their speeches and for your first chance to vote. On Thursday the polls will be open again from 11:00-2:30. Swing by to cast your vote. Remember only members who have paid dues are allowed to vote.

A listing of candidates can be found here Officer Nominations 2008-2009.

MFG.com has graciously offered the RoboJackets travel sponsorship, allowing them to compete in the RoboCup World Championships held in Suzhou, China. In addition to financial support, MFG.com has also offered to help the team with translation assistance, travel arrangements, and any other obstacles they might encounter during their stay in China. MFG.com is a web marketplace that helps engineers and companies submit their designs to machine shops around the world for quotes on quality machined parts. The RoboJackets would like to thank MFG.com for their support and assistance. More about MFG.com can be found here.

Our next general meeting is this Wednesday, the 26th at 6:00pm in the Crescent room of the student center. This will be the most important meeting of the year as we will be taking nominations for next years officers. We are asking all members to attend. As always there will be ice cream.

Also the annual RoboJackets banquet will be on April 10th at 6:00pm in room 1116E in the Klaus building. There will be food, a special guest speaker, and plenty of fun. It’ll be great chance to see all the other team’s robots and get a good sense of what RoboJackets is all about. Also, there will be food. Can’t stress that point enough.

Our RoboCup SmallSize Team has qualified to participate in the world championships in Suzhou, China! We are excited about the opportunity though we know much work remains before we will be prepared to compete.

Additionally, our poster has been accepted in the ECE and CoC Poster Sessions, and our paper has been accepted to the GT UROP Symposium!

2008 FIRST Robotics Championships will be held April 17 - 19 in the Georgia Dome and World Congress Center.