Feb. 27, 2007

VCU’s Siegel Center To Host 2,000 High School Students At Robotics Competition March 1-3

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By Anne Buckley, Pattie Cook and Steve Morawetz

WHAT:  Nearly 2,000 high school students on more than 60 teams from Virginia, the District of Columbia, five other states and Canada will gather in Richmond this week for the annual FIRST Robotics Competition NASA/VCU Regional.  The event represents the culmination of six weeks of intense design and construction activity by students and their professional mentors. Teams will compete head-to-head with robots testing their efforts in strategy, design and fabrication. This year's game is played by two, three-team alliances on a 54 x 26-foot field with robots than cannot exceed 6 feet in height or weigh more than 120 pounds. In this year's game, "Rack 'N' Roll," students' robots will hang inflated, colored tubes on pegs configured in rows and columns on a 10-foot high center "rack" structure. The event is free and open to the public. The 2007 team list is available at the virginiafirst Web site.

WHO:  In addition to the students, their teachers, mentors and numerous volunteers, representatives of FIRST, VCU, NASA Langley and key sponsors will attend and be available for interviews.  Sponsors include: Genworth Financial, Qimonda, Raytheon, Booz Allen Hamilton, DuPont Spruance, Lockheed Martin and Micron Technology.

(Media representatives:  Please visit the media table in the upper lobby of the SiegelCenter to make arrangements to visit the game floor and for interviews.)

WHEN:  March 1-3, 2007:

  • Thursday, March 1 – 8:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Registration, robot inspection and practice rounds (Note to media representatives:  Full access to the "pit" or floor of the arena will be available on Thursday.)
  • Friday, March 2 – 9:00 a.m. – Opening Ceremonies. 10:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. – Competition Matches
  • Saturday, March 3 – 9:00 a.m. – Opening Ceremonies.  9:30 – 11:45 a.m. – Competition Matches.  1:00 – 3:45 p.m. – Final Rounds.  4:00 p.m. – Closing Ceremonies

WHERE:  Virginia Commonwealth University's Stuart C. Siegel Center, 1200 W. Broad St.

OTHER INFORMATION:   The FIRST LEGO® League will have exhibits in the upper lobby and the FIRST Vex Challenge will hold demo scrimmages on Friday.  For more information about the FIRST Robotics Competition NASA/VCU Regional, visit FIRST online at www.usfirst.org or the Virginia FIRST Web site at www.virginiafirst.org.

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About FIRST:  Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people.  Based in Manchester, NH, FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math. With the support of many of the world's most well-known companies, the non-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Vex Challenge, a program using smaller robots, for high school students, the FIRST LEGO® League for children 9-14 years old, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year-olds.