MEDIA ADVISORY
:
07-001
2007 Robotics Competition Challenge Revealed at Kick-Off Event
Cleveland--Over 250 students from 27 high schools who will be participating in the 2007 Buckeye Regional FIRST Robotics Competition will gather at Cuyahoga Community College's Unified Technology Center at 2415 Woodland Avenue on Saturday, January 6, 2007, between 10 and 11:30 a.m. for the 2007 kick-off event.
During a live broadcast by NASA Television via satellite from the FIRST Headquarters in Manchester, N.H., Dean Kamen, inventor and founder of FIRST, will reveal the game, playing field and rules of this year's challenge. "FIRST" stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."
Media representatives are invited to attend the start of this exciting engineering journey and then follow their local teams as they design, build and test their robots in preparation for competition.
In addition to being broadcast live on NASA TV, it will be streamed live on the NASA website:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. NASA TV's Public, Education and Media channels are available on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization.
Following the event, the teams will receive their kit of parts--the same kit that teams across the country will receive--from which to start building their robots. All teams will have six weeks to design, build and practice remotely maneuvering their robots before shipping them off in mid-February to the regional competition site where they will be participating.
The teams will work side-by-side with professional engineers and technicians giving the students a glimpse of what engineering is all about and providing them the opportunity to gain knowledge of and experience in teamwork, time management, task sequencing and computers.
The seventh annual Buckeye Regional competition, sponsored by NASA Glenn Research Center, local corporations and academic and nonprofit organizations, will take place March 22-24 at the Cleveland State University Wolstein Center. More than 60 teams will be competing in this exciting event. Teams from Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Canada and Puerto Rico will be participating this year.
NASA, through its Robotics Alliance Project, provides sponsorships to assist teams in developing self-sustaining FIRST programs in their local areas. These sponsorships cover the cost of entry to one regional event ($6,000) as well as the kit of parts. These sponsorships are targeted at new FIRST teams that need assistance in getting their program started within their local community.
FIRST is a nonprofit organization founded to interest and inspire students in math, science and technology. FIRST represents a cooperative effort among students, teachers, communities, corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies. For additional information about FIRST, go to
http://www.usfirst.org. For more information on NASA and agency programs on the web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
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