03.01.07

Lindsay Crouch
757-864-3189

RELEASE: 07-015

FIRST ROBOTS INVADE RICHMOND FOR WEEKEND COMPETITION



RICHMOND, Va. - Teamwork. That's the word of the weekend for the more 
than 1,000 high school students who spent weeks working together and 
have traveled to Richmond, Va., to prove that their robot is the one 
to beat this year.



This annual robotics competition - called For Inspiration and 
Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) - will be rolling March 
2 and 3 at Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center and is 
open to the public free of charge.


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The 66 teams spent today making final adjustments to their robots and 
sending their creations through the course on practice runs, 
preparing for the real competition tomorrow and Saturday.



FIRST Robotics challenges teams of high school students and their 
mentors to design, assemble and test a robot capable of performing a 
specified task. The teams have only six weeks, a standard "kit of 
parts" and a common set of rules.

<p?This year, the game is called "Rack 'n' Roll." To earn points, 
teams must use their robots to either pick up inner tubes and hang 
them "tic-tac-toe-style" on a metal rack or they can use their ramps 
and strength to lift opposing robots off the ground.



According to an independent survey conducted by Brandeis University's 
Center for Youth and Communities, FIRST Robotics Competition 
participants are more than three times as likely to major in 
engineering than non-FIRST students with similar backgrounds and 
academic experiences. Also according to this survey, the FIRST 
participants are roughly 10 times as likely to have had an 
apprenticeship, internship or co-op job in their freshman year of 
college and significantly more likely to expect to achieve a 
post-graduate degree.



"I definitely plan to use what I've learned here in the future," said 
Mike Stevens, from Grafton High School, in Yorktown, Va. "I'm going 
to pursue a robotics career at Virginia Tech. It's like a rolling 
ball - I've got the momentum going right now and engineering is one 
of my passions, so I'm continuing to roll with it."



FIRST was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, the inventor of Segway Human 
Transporter. According to Kamen, the vision for FIRST is "to create a 
world where science and technology are celebrated... where young 
people dream of becoming science and technology heroes."



This seventh annual Virginia FIRST Competition is sponsored by NASA 
Langley and Virginia Commonwealth University. It is one of 37 
regional competitions in the U.S., Brazil, Canada and Israel. The 
national competition will be held April 12-14 in Atlanta, Ga.



FIRST Schedule Highlights



Friday, March 2:
9 a.m. -- Opening Ceremonies
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. -- Seeding Matches
4:30 p.m. -- Awards Ceremony



Saturday, March 3:
9 a.m. -- Opening Ceremonies
9:20 a.m. - 11:45 p.m. -- Seeding Matches
1 - 3 p.m. -- Final Matches
3 p.m. -- Awards Ceremony



Video available on request.



For more information on research at NASA, visit: <div 
align="center">www.nasa.gov</div>

	
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