News Release 99-20

For Release: April 1, 1999

Kathleen A. Zona
(Bus: 216/433-2920)

Lori J. Rachul
(Bus: 216/433-8806)

NASA/East Tech Robot Victorious at 'FIRST' Regional Competition

A team of students, teachers, engineers and one robot named 'Cosmo' celebrated on their return from the 1999 Great Lakes Regional qualifying matches in Ypsilanti, Michigan winning three awards. The NASA Glenn Research Center/East Technical High School FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Team competed in several qualifying and elimination matches over the weekend that pitted 'Cosmo' against other robots.

The Glenn/East Tech Team won the Delphi Power to Simplify Award, for the best overall engineering design of the robot. "It amazed the judges that we were able to pack so much functionality in such an elegant design." said Larry Oberle, FIRST project manager. "We all realized that it was a risk in designing the robot to perform so many different functions, but the team's Chief Engineer, Mike Krasowski, took the system and made it work."

In addition, the team received two peer awards--best team spirit and the best slogan, "Winners aren't made, they are engineered."

The team placed 27th in the overall competition. Students and engineers will spend the next several weeks fine-tuning their strategy in preparation for the national competition.

For the sixth consecutive year Glenn employees and East Tech students have worked side by side preparing for both the regional and national competition. The team started working together in October on the basic principles of engineering and science to develop a good working relationship in preparation for an intense six-week "concept-to-completion" engineering design challenge.

The Glenn/East Tech Team has corporate sponsorship from NASA, Battelle and TRW, Inc. In addition there are two patrons for the team this year-the Harley Owners Group (HOG), Cleveland Chapter and Southeast Harley Davidson.

FIRST sponsored eight regional events that took place around the country. The final national competition, held each year at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, will be April 23-24.

Information about the FIRST national and regional competitions along with the teams can be found at http://www.usfirst.org

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