It’s time for FIRST robotics to kick-off and, as of Tuesday, the robots are finished and waiting for the first competition of 2012. Vulcan Spring has sponsored Team 1218 of FIRST Robotics for the last few years. We see this as a great way to help schools train kids to thrive in the STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
FIRST was started by Dean Kamen to help kids understand the importance of working as a team to solve a problem involving science and engineering. It’s as close to “real world engineering” as a student can get. FRC combines the excitement of sports with the rigors of science and technology.
Students that work together with their mentors have the skills that are needed in the manufacturing industries. With strict regulations, limited resources, and time constraints, teams of 25 students or more are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand”, and work together as a team to build and program robots to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors. The competition gives the students the ability to plan, design, think, prototype, program, build and re-build a robot to accomplish a task in a competitive environment.? They can program PLCs and vision systems as well as build using gears and motors and pneumatics and creativity to make a competitive robot.
Vulcan sees these students as vital to the growth of the manufacturing world, and they are truly our future leaders.? The competition is not all about the robot. In fact, most of the awards are for working together as a team and also the outreach to the community to help them understand and get excited about technology. Their accomplishments can earn them a place in the World Championship and qualification for nearly $14.8 million in college scholarships.
We wish all of the teams the best of luck in the competitions, and we can’t wait to see the games begin. If you would like to follow the games you can log in to: www.usfirst.org and look for “Rebound Rumble”.
