January 7, 2010

Jeannette P. Owens 
Media Relations Office 
216-433-2990
Jeannette.P.Owens@nasa.gov


MEDIA ADVISORY: 10-001

ROBOTICS COMPETITION KICKOFF THIS SATURDAY

CLEVELAND -- More than 200 students from 24 high schools will get 
their first glimpse at the challenge that awaits them at the 2010 
FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff on Saturday, Jan. 9, from 9 a.m. 
to noon, at Cuyahoga Community College's Unified Technology Center, 
2415 Woodland Avenue. 

FIRST, or "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," 
is an international robotics competition founded by Dean Kamen in 
1989 with a mission to expose students to hands-on science, 
engineering and technology. Students have the opportunity to use 
their minds to accomplish an incredible task: create a functioning 
robot in only six weeks. 

The Saturday kickoff marks the beginning of the design and build 
season. Students have the opportunity to meet with others to compare 
notes, get ideas, make friends, find mentoring teams, pick up the kit 
of parts and get geared up for the Buckeye Regional Robotics 
Competition, scheduled for March 25-27, 2010. 

The Ohio schools attending the kickoff are:


Amherst Steele High School Amherst  
Austintown Fitch High School Austintown  
Beachwood High School Beachwood  
Bedford High School Bedford  
Berea High School Berea  
Brush High School Lyndhurst  
Cleveland Metropolitan School District Cleveland  
Cloverleaf Local Schools Lodi  
EHOVE Career Center Milan  
Girard High School Girard  
Hathaway Brown High School Shaker Heights  
Highland High School Medina  
Liberty High School Youngstown  
Lorain Admiral King Lorain  
Mc2STEM High School Cleveland  
Midpark High School Middleburg Heights  
Niles McKinley High School Niles  
Norwalk High School Norwalk  
Orange Schools Pepper Pike  
St. Edward High School Lakewood  
St. Ignatius Cleveland  
Youngstown Chaney Youngstown    
The Pennsylvania schools attending the kickoff are:


Corry Area High School Corry  
Erie School District Erie    
The kickoff event will feature a live satellite broadcast by NASA 
Television from the FIRST Headquarters in Manchester, N.H. Dean 
Kamen, will reveal the game, playing field and rules for the 2010 
competition. 

In addition, NASA will stream the kickoff program live on the NASA Web 
site: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. NASA TV's public, education and media 
channels are available on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed 
via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 
4040 MHz, vertical polarization.

Media representatives are invited to the kickoff event and to follow 
along with a team during the next six weeks as they work side-by-side 
with professional engineers and technicians, parents and teachers to 
build their robot. 

FIRST is sponsored by the NASA FIRST Robotics Growth Grants. To learn 
more, visit: 
http://frc-grants.arc.nasa.gov/frc/app/directions.php

For additional information about FIRST, visit:



http://www.usfirst.org.


For more information on the Buckeye Regional FIRST Robotics 
Competition, visit:



http://www.oai.org/firstbuckeye/index.htm


For more information on NASA and agency programs on the web, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov

	
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