Today starts the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, and the stars of the show are high school students.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is overseeing the robotics championship, which will take place in the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri over the next three days. Ten teams of high school students from schools across Michigan have been selected, and will all receive $30,000 in grant money from the Chrysler Foundation to help pay for registration fees, parts, materials, and, of course, team uniforms.
The challenge is to build a robot that can chuck a disc up and through a narrow slot – and do it consistently. The robot that does it the most in a 2 minute, 15 second span will win. Each team will get help from a mentor from Chrysler, but it’s the students who will be doing the majority of the legwork – physically and mentally. That championship round, called Ultimate Ascent, will only see six teams, with two superteams of three teams each competing for the title.
But, all ten teams are already winners, because they’re creating some pretty impressive machines on the way to possible future careers in engineering and robotics. These kids already have their sights set much higher than the disc slots they’ll be aiming for this week.
