VCU to host remote kickoff for FIRST robotics competition

By Mike Frontiero
VCU School of Education

RICHMOND, VA – High-school students, their university mentors and engineers will gather at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Engineering on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2002, for the kickoff of the annual FIRST Robotics Competition, in which teams of students and professionals design and build robots and enter them into competitions.

The NASA broadcast at VCU will be one of eight remote kickoff events around the country and in Canada that will occur simultaneously with the live event in Manchester, NH. At the kickoff events, team representatives will receive details about this year’s six-week competition and their kits of robot parts, comprised of 900 bits and pieces that teams will use to build their robots. In addition, three workshops will be held at VCU to help the teams, particularly first-time competitors. The workshops will focus on programming/control, pneumatics and rookie team suggestions for success. Representatives are expected from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The simulcast is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the auditorium of VCU’s School of Engineering, 601 W. Main St. The 2002 challenge will be unveiled at 11 a.m., followed by lunch and the workshops.

The FIRST Robotics Competition (www.usfirst.org) was started in 1992 by New Hampshire inventor-engineer Dean Kamen; the initial event was held in a high-school gym and involved 28 teams. The program, which is designed to develop critical skills in science, technology and engineering, now encompasses 600 teams and 20,000 students competing in 17 regional events and a championship event that will be held April 25-27 at Epcot Center in Orlando, FL.

The South Atlantic regional NASA Langley/VCU School of Engineering FIRST Robotics Competition is scheduled for March 7-9, 2002, at VCU's Stuart C. Siegel Center. About 70 teams and more than 2,000 students, engineers and sponsors are expected. The three-day event could attract as many as 5,000 spectators.