The kickoff for the FIRST Robotics Competition has begun! January 5, 2013 marked the beginning of design. Started by Dean Kamen, this robotics competition gets kids to learn the importance of working as a team using science and technology. Teams of 25 students will work together with their mentors to plan, design, think, protoype, program, build, and re-build a robot to accomplish a specific task, all while under time constraints, strict rules, and limited resources.
Vulcan Spring acknowledges the importance of these students developing “real world” engineering skills to help the growth of the manufacturing industry. For the past few years, Vulcan Spring has sponsored Team 1218 of the competition. Its a great way to help schools train students to thrive in science, technology, engineering, and math, as they are our future leaders!
In addition to the robots these students design, there are awards given for working together as a team and community outreach. Each team is challenged to raise money from the surrounding community for the program. Their accomplishments can earn them a place in the World Championship and qualify for nearly $14.8 million in college scholarships.
This years event is the “Ultimate Ascent”, which is played by two competing alliances on a flat, 27 x 54 foot field. Each alliance consists of three robots competing to score as many discs into their goals as the can during a two minute and fifteen second match. FRC’s video below describes how the game is played.
