National Student Robotics Contest Kicks Off Jan. 9th in Richmond

By Pattie Cook
VirginiaFIRST

Almost 400 high school students from across the state will gather at Virginia Commonwealth University Saturday morning, Jan. 9, for the unveiling of the technical challenge in the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition. Reporters and photographers are welcome.

WHAT:      Kickoff of the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC); high school teams receive robot building kits and learn the rules and technical challenges for this year's nationwide competition. Teams will have six weeks to design and build robots to compete at regional competitions in March, and the FIRST Championship in April.

WHO:        High school students, engineers, teachers and mentors from 38 high school-based teams from across a large part of Virginia, including 17 teams from the Richmond area. To locate teams in your area, click http://www.virginiafirst.org/index.php/kickoffteamlist.

WHEN:      Saturday, January 9, 2010

                  8:30 - 9:30 a.m.-Teams check-in
                  10 - 11:30 a.m.-Teams watch live satellite broadcast featuring Dean Kamen, founder of
                  FIRST. Details of the 2010 technical challenge (game) will be unveiled at approximately
                 11 a.m.
                 Noon–Teams receive their robot building kits for 2010

WHERE:   VCU Commons, 907 Floyd Ave., Richmond, VA

WHY:         FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual event that challenges high school students across the nation, working with professional mentors, to design and build a robot as a solution to a technical engineering problem that changes each year. In addition to learning technical and life skills, participants qualify to apply for $11 million dollars in scholarship funds. The kickoff marks the beginning of the 2010 FRC season.

CONTACT:
Pattie Cook, Executive Director, VirginiaFIRST
Phone:  (804) 784-4898   on-site: (804) 564-8906 
robotsfirst@aol.com

SAVE THE DATE:  66 teams from across the state will converge on VCU's Stuart C. Siegel Center for the FRC Virginia Regional March 18 - 20, 2010.