WINSTED — Northwest Regional High School is throwing its hat into the robotic competition ring.
Judith Palmer, Regional School District 7 superintendent of schools, announced the district won a $35,000 grant from the Alcoa Foundation to launch a FIRST Robotics team.
Payable over two years, the grant will enable Northwest Regional High School to join over 2,000 high schools in the annual competition, scheduled to be held at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
“This is the meeting of good news,” remarked Palmer on the grant and another award conferred upon the district.
Started in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST — which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — holds annual competitions for high school students interested in science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers.
While the goal is to build a robot to win a competition, FIRST Robotics is structured to foster careers in these fields and rewards education and passion. The highest honors are not reserved for the competition winners, but rather the teams that help bring Kamen’s vision to fruition.
Each year, FIRST Robotics presents specific challenges and provides teams with standard rules and identical sets of parts to build a robot to meet this challenge. These kits include motors, programming and design software, and control systems, among other parts. Teams are permitted to spend up to $3,500 on additional parts and have six weeks to build the robot, at which point the teams face off in regional and national competitions.
Teams partaking in FIRST Robotics competitions bring high school students and professional mentors together. Northwest Regional’s team will meet in early November to begin training, learning how to build and program a robot. The 2012 competition officially kicks off on Jan. 7, 2012, when the rules and password to access the competition manual are broadcast online.
While the culmination of the competition does pit teams against one another, cooperation is an equal, if not larger aspect of the competition. The 2011 challenge, named Logo Motion, tasked alliances of three teams to place inner tubes resembling the FIRST Robotics logo on a pegboard.
Teams join forces in alliances of three teams for the competition and are encouraged to share knowledge and parts. One notable case of the latter happened in 2004, when the robot built by Staten Island’s Tottenville High School was lost in transit. Several other teams contributed parts and tools to build a competition-ready robot in one day at the national championships site. Continued...
“Teams are encouraged to share their knowledge, experience, and innovations with each other on and off the play field, as well as before, during and after the competition season,” read a response to a 2006 question about cooperation. “Without inter-team collaborations, many of the central elements of the FIRST philosophy — such as distribution of technical innovations, team workshops, shared designs, software code-sharing, teams mentoring teams, team-run off-season events, etc. — would all be impossible. The whole concept of ‘coopertition’ is based on the idea of teams helping each other to compete.”
Twelve Connecticut-based teams took part in the 2011 championships, operating out of Berlin, Brookfield, Cheshire, East Hartford, Enfield, Meriden, Old Lyme, Shelton, Simsbury, South Windsor, Southington and Windsor Locks. Most of the teams encompassed just one high school along with various corporate participants, but some open the doors to neighboring schools. Meriden’s team tied together both public high schools, Wilcox Technical High School and both of Wallingford’s public high schools.
Connecticut schools have been successful in FIRST Robotics competitions as of late. Bobcat Robotics, based in South Windsor, joined forces with teams from Redondo Beach, California and Ambler, Pennsylvania to win the 2010 national championship, and the Techno Ticks of Lyme-Old Lyme High School snagged the Chairman’s Award in 2009. Westport’s Wreckers were one of the three teams to win the 2011 FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship, alongside teams from Ronan, Montana and Lexington, Massachusetts.
Anyone interested in taking part in, or assisting, Northwest Regional High School’s FIRST Robotics team is asked to contact principal Ken Chichester at (860) 379-8525 or via email at kchichester@nwr7.org.
Reach Jason Siedzik by email at jsiedzik@registercitizen.com, via Twitter at @RCjsiedzik or by phone at (860) 489-3121, ext. 321. Follow us online at registercitizen.com and on Twitter @RegisterCitizen. For Register Citizen text alerts, text tornews to 22700. Message and data rates may apply.
By JASON SIEDZIKWINSTED — Northwest Regional High School is throwing its hat into the robotic competition ring.
Judith Palmer, Regional School District 7 superintendent of schools, announced the district won a $35,000 grant from the Alcoa Foundation to launch a FIRST Robotics team.
Payable over two years, the grant will enable Northwest Regional High School to join over 2,000 high schools in the annual competition, scheduled to be held at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
“This is the meeting of good news,” remarked Palmer on the grant and another award conferred upon the district.
Started in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST — which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — holds annual competitions for high school students interested in science, technology, engineering or mathematics careers.
While the goal is to build a robot to win a competition, FIRST Robotics is structured to foster careers in these fields and rewards education and passion. The highest honors are not reserved for the competition winners, but rather the teams that help bring Kamen’s vision to fruition.
Each year, FIRST Robotics presents specific challenges and provides teams with standard rules and identical sets of parts to build a robot to meet this challenge. These kits include motors, programming and design software, and control systems, among other parts. Teams are permitted to spend up to $3,500 on additional parts and have six weeks to build the robot, at which point the teams face off in regional and national competitions.
Teams partaking in FIRST Robotics competitions bring high school students and professional mentors together. Northwest Regional’s team will meet in early November to begin training, learning how to build and program a robot. The 2012 competition officially kicks off on Jan. 7, 2012, when the rules and password to access the competition manual are broadcast online.
While the culmination of the competition does pit teams against one another, cooperation is an equal, if not larger aspect of the competition. The 2011 challenge, named Logo Motion, tasked alliances of three teams to place inner tubes resembling the FIRST Robotics logo on a pegboard.
Teams join forces in alliances of three teams for the competition and are encouraged to share knowledge and parts. One notable case of the latter happened in 2004, when the robot built by Staten Island’s Tottenville High School was lost in transit. Several other teams contributed parts and tools to build a competition-ready robot in one day at the national championships site.
“Teams are encouraged to share their knowledge, experience, and innovations with each other on and off the play field, as well as before, during and after the competition season,” read a response to a 2006 question about cooperation. “Without inter-team collaborations, many of the central elements of the FIRST philosophy — such as distribution of technical innovations, team workshops, shared designs, software code-sharing, teams mentoring teams, team-run off-season events, etc. — would all be impossible. The whole concept of ‘coopertition’ is based on the idea of teams helping each other to compete.”
Twelve Connecticut-based teams took part in the 2011 championships, operating out of Berlin, Brookfield, Cheshire, East Hartford, Enfield, Meriden, Old Lyme, Shelton, Simsbury, South Windsor, Southington and Windsor Locks. Most of the teams encompassed just one high school along with various corporate participants, but some open the doors to neighboring schools. Meriden’s team tied together both public high schools, Wilcox Technical High School and both of Wallingford’s public high schools.
Connecticut schools have been successful in FIRST Robotics competitions as of late. Bobcat Robotics, based in South Windsor, joined forces with teams from Redondo Beach, California and Ambler, Pennsylvania to win the 2010 national championship, and the Techno Ticks of Lyme-Old Lyme High School snagged the Chairman’s Award in 2009. Westport’s Wreckers were one of the three teams to win the 2011 FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship, alongside teams from Ronan, Montana and Lexington, Massachusetts.
Anyone interested in taking part in, or assisting, Northwest Regional High School’s FIRST Robotics team is asked to contact principal Ken Chichester at (860) 379-8525 or via email at kchichester@nwr7.org.
Reach Jason Siedzik by email at jsiedzik@registercitizen.com, via Twitter at @RCjsiedzik or by phone at (860) 489-3121, ext. 321. Follow us online at registercitizen.com and on Twitter @RegisterCitizen. For Register Citizen text alerts, text tornews to 22700. Message and data rates may apply.
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