FIRST Robotics Competition Chesapeake Regional

FIRST Robotics Competition Chesapeake Regional

Sponsored by BAE Systems

March 13-15, 2008 Halsey Field House, U S Naval Academy

www.chesapeakefirst.org

Other sponsors => United States Naval Academy, NASA, Sylvan/Laureate Foundation, UniStar Nuclear Energy, PhRMA, HUGHES, Lockheed Martin Corporation, DeVry University

Chesapeake Regional statistics:

62 teams from 8 states plus DC plus the UK

27 MD teams

5 DC teams

10 NJ teams

6 PA teams

4 VA teams

3 teams from UK (1 from London, 2 others from northern England)

2 teams from NH and MA each

1 team from Alabama, SC and Hawaii

Baltimore: 8 inner-city Baltimore teams; Team 2528 from Baltimore is all-girls

6 rookie teams (1-UK, 5-MD)

Team 75-NJ and 88-MA are most senior-started in 1996

Every other year from 1996-present is represented

• 6^th year for Chesapeake Regional competition
• Most teams Maryland/DC are “after-school teams” (rather than in class, or located within a corporation)
• Majority of teams have a budget from $10,000-20,000/year. Some out of state teams attending Chesapeake have sponsors and budget from $50,000-75,000.
• 20% of teams at Chesapeake are almost 100% minority

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) www.usfirst.org

 is a not-for-profit organization founded by Dean Kamen to inspire and excite young people about science and technology. FIRST designs programs that build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Each year's kick-off event unveils a new, exciting, and challenging game. From the kick-off, teams have just six weeks to solve the season's common problem using the same kit of parts and a standard set of rules.  At the events, teams compete to win recognition for design excellence, competitive play, and sportsmanship. In the 2008 game, "FIRST Overdrive," students' robots are designed to race around a track knocking down inflated 40” Trackballs and moving them around the track, passing them either over or under a 6’6” overpass.  Extra points are scored by robots positioning the Trackballs back on the overpass before the end of the 2 minute 15 second match.

Page Two

2008-Chesapeake FIRST Background Information

Throughout their FIRST experience, students gain maturity, build self-confidence, learn teamwork, and gain an understanding of professionalism.  Since there are critical roles for students in everything from design and building, to computer animation, to fundraising and research, every student can actively participate and benefit.

FIRST is a fascinating, real-world, professional experience that helps students discover how exciting and rewarding the world of science and technology can be.

FIRST brings the excitement of a sporting event to science and technology via robotics competitions.

FIRST provides an education and career path for young people with an interest in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. 2008 FIRST participants are eligible for more than $9.6 million in scholarship funds.

FIRST creates powerful mentorship relationships between young people and professional engineers, pairing students with professional adults, most of whom work as engineers, scientists, teachers, and technicians (and others come from non-technical fields).

FIRST is supported by a strong network of national corporations, educational institutions, and professional institutions that provide funding, mentorship time and talent, volunteerism, and equipment to make FIRST a reality.
 
FIRST rewards "Gracious Professionalism." Winning a FIRST competition requires more than winning a traditional sports competition.

FIRST is a not-for-profit founded by Dean Kamen, renowned inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. The public charity offers innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue

leaders understand the value and power that FIRST has in inspiring students to pursue science and

Team 1677, “Access 9” from South Bend, Indiana was awarded a FIRST LEGO League Champion’s

Challenge Inspire Award.

Washington from BAE Systems, Boston Scientific, and General Motors will also be present.

 .

 COMMERCE SECRETARY PRAISES FUTURE SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS DURING VISIT TO ROBOTICS COMPETITION

The Washington Times

www.washingtontimes.com

ROBOTS

By Ann Geracimos
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published March 19, 2007

Members of the Robotics Club at Rockville's Col. Zadok Magruder High School never met a robot they didn't like.
    Of course, most of them had only met two -- the ones they built last year and this year for the Chesapeake FIRST Regional robotics competition. It doesn't take into account the robots that ultimately defeated theirs.
    The robotic devices they built themselves are tested in the contest to see how quickly they can lift large plastic rings and place them onto horizontal metal poles

Click here for more of this article 

GAZETTE Newspapers

(Montgomery County, MD)

January 31, 2007

Magruder students bringing science to life

Robotics competition gives teams a chance to flex its ingenuity

by Melissa J. Brachfeld

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez talks to members of the Col. Zadok Magruder High School Robotics Club during a visit to the Derwood school Monday

morning.

Charles E. Shoemaker⁄The Gazette

Students of Col. Zadok Magruder High School proved that engineering is about much more than math and science on Monday morning as they showed off a homemade robot and discussed their plans for an upcoming international robotics competition

For more on this article click here

The Frederick News-Post

(Frederick, MD)

January 30, 2007

Montgomery County students use team work

to create robotic wonders

By Sonia Boin

ROCKVILLE—Magruder High School senior Lauren Miller found that making robots can draw high-level attention.

Fore more on this article click here.

Maryland Gazette

Building Interest

Lego robotics inspires young engineers at Meade Middle

By Grant Huang

       Staff Writer

  School was out and the buses had gone, but around 15 seventh- and eighth-graders were still at Meade Middle, huddled together over worktables and muttering amongst themselves. 

   Each held up different pieces of Legos – the colorful interlocking plastics building bricks famous he world over. The students argued over which brick should be added to their ultimate creation, a Lego robot.

-click here to read more-