FAIRMONT, W.Va. — This weekend, Fairmont State University will host two state robotics tournaments. On Saturday, December 2, 2017, over 60 teams from across West Virginia will compete at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League State Tournament at the university’s Falcon Center. The following day, December 3, 2017, teams from surrounding states will gather at the same location for the FIRST Tech Challenge. Each tournament has a unique theme and set of guidelines.
The FIRST LEGO League Challenge has three parts: the robot game, project and the core values. The robot game and project are what teams do, and the core values guide teams through the experience. Teams competing will go through three judged sessions in the morning and the table rounds run in the afternoon. This year’s theme for FIRST LEGO League is called HYDRO DYNAMICS and teaches the competing students all about water – how it’s found, transported, used or disposed of it.
In the FIRST Tech Challenge, two teams will work together to form an alliance and compete with other alliances that are also partnered up. This particular challenge differs from both FIRST LEGO League challenges, because the students must complete both a driver-controlled and autonomous portion of the competition. This year’s theme will be Relic Recovery presented by Qualcomm.
“Every year, I continue to be amazed at the innovative solutions to societal problems engineered by middle school students, and this year‘s theme of Hydrodynamics is particularly relevant in our state,” Director of NASA IV&V Robotics Alliance Project Todd Ensign said. “The LEGO robots engineered and programmed by these middle school students can perform incredibly complex and multi-step tasks that prepare them to design the future that includes autonomous vehicles, assembly plants and much more.”
The WV Robotics Alliance, located at the NASA Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Program, supports competitions, off-season events and trainings for FIRST LEGO League Jr., FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Robotics Competition, VEX IQ, VEX Robotics Competition, Vex U, Skills USA and Zero Robotics.
The public is encouraged to stop by both Saturday and Sunday anytime between 1-5 p.m. to catch the robotics action. With 1,500 students, coaches and parents estimated to be in attendance, this is expected to be the largest tournament yet.
For more information about NASA IV&V’s role with the WV Robotics Alliance, please visit: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ivv/education/educators.html
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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview, please call Bailee Miller at 304-367-8270 (work) or send an email to Bailee.R.Miller@ivv.nasa.gov.