FIRST ROBOTICS — Theme: Overdrive
Although I’m tempted to talk about how to spell “team” with an “I”, I’ll let that go.
Instead I’d like to share some interesting and relevant information about an upcoming national competition — even more relevant given Ryan Newman’s engineering background.
FIRST Robotics is an annual competition for high school kids around the country. We at VCU, most notably our School of Engineering, have hosted the NASA/VCU regional event for the past eight years. This year’s competition, March 6-8, will include high school teams from Virginia, DC, five other states, and Canada and highlights a new themed challenge — “Overdrive,” featuring a checkered-flag logo.
Competition is rough and tumble. In fact, the “pit” area where teams work on their robots mirrors a NASCAR pit — each student/pit crew member has a specific responsibility as he or she develops the robots. The competition is timed, and ultimately the teams’ robots will compete head-to-head in robot strategy, design, and fabrication. The event represents the culmination of six weeks of intense design and construction activity by students and their professional mentors.
FIRST was founded in 1980 by inventor Dean Kamen, who is best known as the inventor of the Segway, and is a nonprofit organization. Robots and teams are made possible through their sponsorship donations, with logos proudly displayed on the robots and students (for example, uniforms).
It would have been great to have Ryan in attendance, given his engineering background. Nevertheless, since this is a nationwide competition, check out your immediate area for this exciting competition. Details can be found at http://www.usfirst.org/. A video about the competition is here.
If NASCAR is looking for diversity, here’s a great place to start!
Jon