 |
GHS Robotics Team World
Champions
Inventor Dean
Kamen recognizes best of young robotics competitors at
annual FIRST Championship
April 19, 2008
ATLANTA - April
19, 2008 - A team from Greenville High School emerged
victorious this weekend at the FIRST (For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. It was
the climax to weeks of competition involving more than
1,500 teams from the United States and seven other
nations. The team, nicknamed Robowranglers, was part
of a three-team winning alliance that included teams from
Sterling Heights, Michigan and St. Catharines, Ontario.
With no
instructions, students had only six weeks to build their
robots from a kit of hundreds of parts. This year's
game, called "FIRST Overdrive," tested the
students' and robots' ability to race around a track
knocking down 40" inflated Trackballs and moving them
around the track, passing them either over or under a 6'6"
overpass.
"FIRST is
inspiring the next generation of innovators and
engineers," said Kamen. "Years from now, some of
these students will be inventing solutions to society's
most challenging problems."
FIRST
also announced the recipients of numerous educational
scholarships worth approximately $10 million from the most
prestigious science and engineering schools.
A total of
37,500 high school students from the United States,
Canada, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands,
and the United Kingdom participated in 41 regional
competitions during March and April. Teams earned
their invitations to the Championship by excelling in
competitive play, sportsmanship and the development of
partnerships among schools, businesses and communities.
For a complete
listing of awards, match results and scholarship winners,
please visit FIRST online at
www.usfirst.org.
SPONSORS
Autodesk, Inc. is the Official Championship Sponsor of
the 2008 FIRST Championship. Other FIRST
Championship sponsors this year are: Abbott Laboratories;
BAE Systems; The Coca-Cola Company; FedEx Corporation -
FIRST Shipping Sponsor; NASA - Machine Shop and
Satellite Broadcast Sponsor; Underwriters Laboratories -
FIRST Safety Partner; Delphi Corporation - FIRST
Hall of Fame Sponsor; Dassault Falcon Jet Corporation -
FIRST Hospitality Center Sponsor; Association for
Laboratory Automation - FIRST Judges Room & Dinner
Sponsor; Lockheed Martin Corporation - FIRST Event
Sponsor; Georgia Institute of Technology - FIRST
Scholarship Row Sponsor; Central Intelligence Agency and
Rolls-Royce - FIRST Robotics Conference Sponsors.
ABOUT
FIRST
Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST
(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science
and technology in young people. Based in Manchester,
N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs
to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while
motivating young people to pursue opportunities in
science, technology, and engineering. With the
support of many of the world's most well-known companies,
the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST
Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge for
high-school students, the FIRST Lego League for
children 9-14 years old, and the Junior FIRST LEGO
League for 6 to 9 year-olds. To learn more about
FIRST, go to
www.usfirst.org.
|
|
