December 15, 2005 Source: University of Waterloo:
http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news.php?id=4659 UW to host FIRST Robotics regional competition WATERLOO, Ont., Dec. 15 - Some of Ontario's brightest high school students will once again converge on the University of Waterloo campus for the FIRST Robotics Waterloo Regional Competition next spring. The annual event involves almost 30,000 high school students around the world. The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Waterloo Regional Competition will take place March 23-25, 2006. The contest involves short games played by remote-controlled robots which are designed and built within six weeks out of a common set of basic parts by a team of 15 to 25 students and a handful of engineer-mentors. The students pilot the robots on the field. "There will be between 25 to 30 teams participating in the Waterloo regional competition involving a total of 700 students," said UW Prof. Robert Gorbet, Electrical & Computer Engineering, who helped bring the regionals to the university campus. "UW is one of two Canadian venues to be given an opportunity to hold a FIRST regional competition," he said, adding that the other Canadian site is located at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. The annual competition now reaches more than 28,000 students on 1,100 teams in 33 regional competitions. The final championship will be held in Atlanta next April 27-29. The teams come from Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Great Britain, Israel and almost every U.S. state. The event is called "an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way." The regional competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines and deadlines. FIRST competitions are open to the public and free to attend. Regional competitions are often held at universities and involve teams cheered by thousands of fans over two-and-a-half days. A championship event caps the season. Referees oversee the competition and judges present awards to teams for design, technology, sportsmanship and commitment. The contest had its start in 1989 in New Hampshire. The championship now is held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and expects to attract some 8,500 participants. Universities, colleges, corporations, businesses and individuals provide scholarships to the student participants. Involved engineers experience again many of the reasons they chose engineering as a profession and their companies contribute to the community while creating their future workforces. The competition shows students that technological fields hold many opportunities and the basic concepts of science, math, engineering and invention are exciting and interesting. Mark Breadner, a teacher at Woburn Collegiate Institute in Toronto, helped prepare the first Canadian team for the 2001 championship at Disney World. He felt that Canada should have its own regional event, in addition to the 16 regionals south of the border. In 2002, as a result of his efforts, there were 22 teams and the first Canadian regional was held at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. Two years ago, Breadner approached Gorbet at UW to discuss the possibility of the university becoming a second Canadian regional location. The idea received strong support and FIRST organizers named Waterloo an expansion site. For information on the competition, how to volunteer at or sponsor the event, visit www.firstrobotics.uwaterloo.ca and www.usfirst.org Sponsors for the 2006 FIRST Robotics Waterloo Regional Competition are: Gold - Research In Motion, $50,000; Silver - UW, $25,000; Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC), $25,000. Contact:
Prof. Rob Gorbet, (519) 888-4567, ext. 3489; rbgorbet@uwaterloo.ca
John Morris, UW Media Relations, (519) 888-4435; jmorris@uwaterloo.ca
Release no. 274 - December 15, 2005
| 