500 Robots Invade Georgia Dome April 27-29

Posted Monday, April 24, 2006

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ATLANTA – April 20, 2006 – Months of rigorous preparation and exciting regional competitions across the U.S. will culminate in the 15th annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship coming to Atlanta Thursday through Saturday, April 27-29. Georgia teams from Atlanta, Marietta and Norcross will join hundreds of winning teams from three separate robotics competitions to compete in the Georgia Dome during the FIRST Championships. www.usfirst.org.

The FIRST Championships are noisy and colorful--full of giant banners, team mascots and thousands of cheering fans. The public is invited to attend all FIRST Championship competition events at no charge.

The main event is the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship for high school students. Three hundred forty high school robotics teams made up of 8,500 students put their carefully-constructed robots to the test competing in the fast moving game Aim High. The game tests the students’ ability to race up, down and around a court firing foam balls through hoops and plowing into floor goals. Students have to program a robotic vision system to navigate their robots.

Teams reaching the Championships have competed in either the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), the FIRST LEGOâ League (FLL) or the FIRST Vex™ Challenge (FVC). FRC practice matches will be held on Thursday, April 27 and competition matches will be held Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29. FLL and FVC matches will be held on Thursday and Friday, April 27 and 28.

“Our country is in the middle of a crisis in science and technology, and FIRST is trying to change how our culture views these fields,” said FIRST founder Dean Kamen, renowned inventor of the Segwayâ Human Transporter. “FIRST competitions employ a high energy environment to help young people see scientists and engineers in the same light as their traditional heroes in sports and entertainment.”

Kamen will be on hand to witness the Championships along with several business executives and scientists, including FIRST President Paul Gudonis and Dave Lavery, Program Executive for NASA Solar Systems Exploration. A working replica of the NASA MARS ROVER will also be in display.

Over 1,130 teams made up of 28,500 high school students from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and the United Kingdom participated in 33 regional competitions during March and April. Teams earned their invitations to the Championship by excelling in competitive play, sportsmanship and the development of partnerships between schools, businesses and communities.

FIRST students are eligible to receive almost $8,000,000 in scholarships from some of the finest science and engineering schools in the country. Many of these schools will be featured in Scholarship Row, with college representatives on hand offering information about their school’s science and engineering programs. A recent study revealed that students from urban schools who participate in FIRST programs were twice as likely to major in science and engineering and more than twice as likely to pursue a science-related career after college.

In addition to FRC, the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival for middle-school students features over 620 students from the top 75 teams around the world. This year’s FLL challenge, Ocean Odyssey, requires students to design, build and program a LEGO MindStorms™ robot that releases a dolphin, locates a sunken ship and prevents pollution — all on a tabletop playing field. FLL is an international program for students 9-14, created through a partnership between FIRST and The LEGO Group.

Approximately 500 students will compete the FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC), a pilot program designed to offer high-school students the challenge of a FIRST Robotics Competition, using a more accessible and affordable robotics kit known as the Vex Robotics Design System.

SPONSORS

Autodesk is the Official Championship Sponsor of the 2006 FIRST Championship. Other FIRST Championship sponsors this year are: FedEx Corporation (shipping sponsor); Underwriters Laboratories (safety partner); NASA (machine shop and satellite broadcast sponsor); the Coca Cola Company (team alliance sponsor); Delphi (Hall of Fame sponsor); Dassault Falcon Jet Corporation (hospitality center sponsor); the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation (robotics conference sponsor); the Central Intelligence Agency (pit admin sponsor); Georgia Institute of Technology (Scholarship Row sponsor); BellSouth Corporation, Georgia Power, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. and Wachovia Bank (FRC Peachtree Consortium).ABOUT FIRST

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people, their schools and their communities. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering. With the support of many of the world’s most well-known companies, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition for high school students and the FIRST LEGO League for children 9-14 years old. To learn more about FIRST go to www.usfirst.org.