Teams unite to take top honors at FIRST Championship

Three teams of students — from high schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Nevada — joined together to take the top honors at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta last month.

The championship round was the culmination of months of competition between more than 1,300 teams from the United States and six other countries, including Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

An obviously enthusiastic FIRST supporter checks out the exhibition at the championships in Atlanta.

FIRST is a not-for-profit organization founded by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway human transporter. The group offers innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math while building life skills. Teams earned their invitations to the championship by excelling in competitive play, sportsmanship, and the development of partnerships among schools, businesses, and communities.

Three teams formed the Winning Alliance at the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship: "Bobcat Robotics" (Team 177) of South Windsor High School from South Windsor, Conn.; "Gompei and the H.E.R.D." (Team 190) of Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science from Worcester, Mass.; and "Highrollers" (Team 987) of Cimarron-Memorial High School from Las Vegas.

In this year's game, "Rack 'N' Roll," robots had to hang inflated colored tubes on pegs on the playing field.

Team 365, "Miracle Workerz" from MOE Robotics Group from Wilmington, Del., won the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship Chairman's Award. The Chairman's Award goes to the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.

Students who competed in the 2007 FIRST Competition built their robots from a kit of hundreds of parts. In this year's game, called "Rack 'N' Roll," each team's robot had to hang inflated colored tubes on pegs that were configured in rows and columns on a 10-foot high rack in the center of the playing field. Teams also had to program a robotic vision system in order to navigate their robots, as well as have their entries be able to lift the other teams' robots at least four feet off the ground.

For the complete list of winners, visit www2.usfirst.org/2007comp/events/CMP/
awards.html.

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