All,
I thought you might enjoy the report below from one our students who organized a regional robotics competition in Kiewit Hall on February 1. This is the second they have done this and in attracts over 500 people. This was not possible before Kiewit Hall.
I hope all is well. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the upcoming board meeting.
Best, Lance
Lance C. Pérez, Ph.D., FASEE Omar H. Heins Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Fred Hunzeker Dean of Engineering University of Nebraska-Lincoln lcperez@unl.edumailto:lperez1@unlnotes.unl.edu
From: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Date: Monday, February 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM To: Lance Perez lcperez@unl.edu Cc: VexU UnlvexU@gmail.com, Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Subject: Re: UNLVEXU February 1st Kiewit Hall Event Hey,
Besides our isolated Wi-Fi network working for the practice runs and not the actual event causing a 2-hour delay, incredible.
Everything clicked into place and we got through a great event where all of the volunteers were well-fed (We accidentally ordered 22 too many pizzas), all high school students got to partake in all of the event across the basement and second floor, parents and visitors got to watch within the venue but also on our live streams, we handed out the nicest banner and trophy combination to our award winners out of all of the other events in Nebraska and surrounding states, got a bunch of RSO design teams to bring projects up to the second floor, got covered by 2 local news channels, and put it all away without a trace Saturday night. Volunteers who live in Grand Island kept asking me about the UNL event last weekend when I volunteered at Grand Island High School's tournament last Saturday, they didn't know I was involved when they asked and were excited about what they heard.
Now that my classes and event supplies are back in order, I should have a nice set of highlight videos/pictures and event statistics to send out. The event didn't lose money this year (Margins are tight after custodial added an unknown $100's of costs 3 days before our event, they initially cleared it 2 weeks before the event and still haven't given a final cost) and ended up being the largest high school robotics event in the state of Nebraska. It was better than the first year and could still be perfected for the future.
The event works physically going forward in Kiewit Hall (or Bob Devaney if we wanted to host a world qualifier instead of just a state qualifier) but I am uncertain about another event ever happening. I was the only member on the team taking event planning seriously and I would never wish that on anyone. There are a lot of intricacies to running a VEX event at UNL without taking massive financial losses, I don't know what could be done once I graduate in spring 2026. At the very least, these last two years of events have been the highlights of not only my year in VEX but also all of the competitors who attended.
In case you didn't see as I await more photos and videos coming in from the event, here are two clips from the news- (The better one) - https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.klkntv.com/unls-college-of-engineeri... https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.1011now.com/video/2025/02/02/unl-eng...
Best,
Karson
[cid:2f92e2ce-3fb5-4c37-905c-2d5196da8d9c]
Karson Swartzbaugh
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate
Honors Program
Aerospace Server Admin, Lunabotics, Theme Park Design Group, Engineering Student Advisory Board
________________________________ From: Lance Perez lcperez@unl.edu Sent: Friday, February 7, 2025 2:35 PM To: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Cc: VexU UnlvexU@gmail.com; Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Subject: Re: UNLVEXU February 1st Kiewit Hall Event
So, Karson,
How did it go?
Lance
Lance C. Pérez, Ph.D., FASEE
Omar H. Heins Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Fred Hunzeker Dean of Engineering
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
lcperez@unl.edumailto:lperez1@unlnotes.unl.edu
From: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM To: Lance Perez lcperez@unl.edu Cc: VexU UnlvexU@gmail.com, Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Subject: UNLVEXU February 1st Kiewit Hall Event
Hello,
My name is Karson and I am the lead planner for the VEX high school event being hosted in Kiewit Hall on February 1st. I was chatting with Lorie the other week and learned 1, congrats on getting an HDMI cord for your confrence room and 2, that you will be out traveling at the time of our event. As part of the opening ceremony for our event, are there any opening welcomes or remarks you would like to record for us to share? For the opening ceremony, it will be livestreamed on YouTube and live routed throughout all of the rooms/floors we are using for the event, feel free to welcome both audiences.
If you do record one, please place it in the folder below along with our other media for the event.
[Image removed by sender.]Livestream<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://uofnelincoln-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/per... >
Lastly, I am not sure if our video from last year's event has ever been sent to you. We had quite the ordeal with our videographer, we finally got it up and here is the link-https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://youtu.be/SGSIMxNRMmY?si=td2tiZKZFVxXrO6k...
Thank you for listening to me walk into your office a year and a half ago about some medium sized event for robotics. We have not only a stellar event that could be handed off to continue for years to come (I'll be around another year to help with that), I was asked to help at VEX Worlds as part of my experience with this event and my other time in the VEX scene. This wouldn't have happened if you did not ask if we could do it in Kiewit.
Best,
[cid:2f92e2ce-3fb5-4c37-905c-2d5196da8d9c]
Karson Swartzbaugh
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate
Honors Program
VEXU Treasurer, Aerospace Server Admin, Lunabotics, Theme Park Design Group, Engineering Student Advisory Board
________________________________
From: Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 12:44 PM To: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Subject: Re: VEX Update
Karson, you should reach out to Lance and ask if he wants to prepare a video for the event or a message. K
From: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 12:40 PM To: Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Subject: Re: VEX Update
I completely forgot my second part to that email-
For the event, could you ask at your meeting if the Dean's suite would like to prepare a welcome message for our event's opening ceremony? We could show either a brief recorded video for a welcome or somebody could come and speak if desired. We will have Dr Jeff Beavers come up and touch on what all recruitment is offering at our event, I will be touching on everything else for our ceremony.
If a video is prepared, here is a place for such a recording to go-
[Image removed by sender.]Livestream<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://uofnelincoln-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/per... >
Best,
Karson
________________________________
From: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 12:32 PM To: Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Subject: Re: VEX Update
Hello,
The VEX event being hosted within Kiewit Hall is an event made up of about 70 different high school teams (We have 25 high schools, one high school can have multiple teams) from 4 states. This event was initiated as a way for our club to gain funds form another source besides ESAB as events are primarily copy and paste once a setup is found (We are calculated to break even this year, future events will be profitable). The secondary goal of this event is to a provide a quality a tournament experience, the third goal are to promote UNL through recruitment, student volunteers, and showcasing other student club projects.
If a team wins our event, they will be getting a custom trophy and large banner. The top 4 awards (There is a set of 4 awards from every VEX events all over the world) will also receive a qualification to state. Most of our 12 award winners will already be qualified for state anyway, teams are not here to qualify for state and the out of state teams cannot win an invite to their state tournament at a Nebraska event. All attending teams are excited for the event venue, the awards, us students involved as the college VEX team hosting, and are treating our event as the best event to practice at before state (Our event is going to be more competitive than the state tournaments of all 4 states individually). High achieving high school stem students, stem high school coaches, and parents will be in attendance and the main audience.
The event is on February 1st, 2025 from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. We will be cleaned up by 9:00 PM. We are utilizing the second floor for spectators, the competition fields, the student pits where they will spend time in between matches, and the practice fields (Identical fields to the competition that are first come, first serve). We are utilizing Kiewit Cafe for attendees to use and the open space on the first floor will be a space with our event livestreams running for those wanting a less dense space to attend. We are utilizing the basement for a simple volunteer room, judges room, staffed garage station for supervising power tool usage when modifying robots, and the open space to conduct a solo match called skills where robots score as much as they can in 1 minute.
We expect 300-500 attendees which includes ~150 students, we will have an exact number of high school students after the event. We expect 40+ student volunteers. The general schedule can be found here-Agenda-https://vexu.unl.edu/competitors-and-visitors/agenda/
I have attached the folder with the original CAD folders as one of our previous meetings and a handout about the event again.
Folder of photos-
[Image removed by sender.]Pictures of CAD<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://uofnelincoln-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/per... >
Best, Karson
[cid:c733a4ad-3d7e-4dee-a28a-01a41ad45351]
________________________________
From: Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 10:38 AM To: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Subject: Re: VEX Update
Karson, I don’t need much more information. Kim
Why have this event? What does it lead to for those that win?
From: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 12:59 AM To: Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Subject: Re: VEX Update
Good morning,
Here is a draft from earlier today I threw together to flesh out later. I will send an elaborated upon email later when I wake up. You will have all of this for your meeting.
Karson
Send pic
Goal is make a great event with recruitment and a club focus on side. Is also a fundraiser for club
Feb 1, 7 am to 6 pm, 300-500 from outside building with 100 from unl. Opening ceremony to noon best time ot make it
40-60 student volunteers
Floor usage
0-skills, volunteer rooms
1- open space
2-pits and event and outreach
3-little recruitment
Agenda-https://vexu.unl.edu/competitors-and-visitors/agenda/
Agenda | VEX Tournament | Nebraskahttps://vexu.unl.edu/competitors-and-visitors/agenda/
08:45 - 09:50 AM: Before Opening Ceremony: 10:20 - 12:00 PM: During the first block of qualifications matches: 01:00 - 02:45 PM: During and part way through the second block of qualifications
vexu.unl.edu
[cid:c733a4ad-3d7e-4dee-a28a-01a41ad45351]
________________________________
From: Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Sent: Monday, January 27, 2025 2:29 PM To: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Subject: Re: VEX Update
Reminder! I need the below summary by end of the day on Tuesday. Thank you, K
From: Kim Wilson kwilson4@unl.edu Date: Friday, January 24, 2025 at 5:25 PM To: Karson Swartzbaugh kswartzbaugh2@huskers.unl.edu Subject: VEX Update
Karson,
Can you provide me with an update on VEX. I have been asked to give a brief summary of the day’s events at the leadership meeting next Wednesday!
1. Overall goal of the event and targeted audience 2. Day, duration, and expected attendance (students, families and friends) 3. Number of student volunteers 4. What is happening on what floors 5. General schedule
Thank you,
Kim
