In addition to the annual Space Elevator Games, put on by the Spaceward Foundation with prize money supplied by NASA, there is also the annual “Junior Space Elevator Games”.  Last year, they were held in conjunction with the 2007 Space Engineering and Science Institute workshop (which this writer attended and blogged about here, here, here, here and here).

This year, this competition was held in conjunction with the 2008 Earth and Space Conference.  A team from the University of California – Santa Cruz was the winner.  From the press release:

“A team of four students from the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz won the first-place trophy in a national student robotics competition for their design of a solar-powered robot that can climb up a vertical ribbon carrying a payload. Such a robotic climber would be an essential component of a “space elevator,” a concept for transporting material into space via a cable or tether extending from the surface of the Earth into space.”

Congratulations to the UC Santa Cruz team!

Read the entire press release here.

(Picture from the press release – click on it or view the Press release for a slightly larger version)