Within the Technology Corridor, the best and brightest high school students will be descending on Blacksburg High School to compete in the sport-of-the-mind, FIRST Robotics Competition.
More than 30 teams from Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland will be meeting at this Montgomery County Public School gymnasium to test their teamwork and ingenuity at the FIRST Chesapeake District Southwest Virginia event Saturday and Sunday.
This year’s game, developed by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), is called Power Up.
It includes the nostalgia of the video arcade with the excitement of a sports-based robotics competition.
The game scenario includes two, three-team alliances of video game characters and their human operators who are trapped in an arcade game. Each alliance has 3 ways to help defeat the “boss”: Tipping a scale or the alliance’s switch in their favor to earn points, exchanging power cubes for power ups (force, boost, and levitate) to gain a temporary advantage, and climbing a tower to face the “boss” and escape the game.
These high school level robotics teams, with the guidance of adult mentors, had six weeks starting January 6 to design, build, and program their competitive robot to perform a series of tasks in a basketball sized arena using offense, defense, and quick-thinking techniques.
Robots required computer aided designing, mechanical and electrical engineering, and program coding by students. The 2018 fast-paced challenge not only requires a great design; it also requires well-timed and creative strategies to achieve optimal scores. Teamwork, innovation, and coopertition will play a tremendous role at the competitions.
“While spectators may come to the event thinking it’s all about the robot, they’ll quickly see that the robot is a vehicle that reinforces STEM-based concepts and teaches valuable life skills such as leadership and creativity.
We invite families, educators, community leaders, and the public to join us and see ways that they can get involved in helping FIRST Chesapeake build tomorrow’s technology leaders in their communities”, said FIRST Chesapeake Executive Director, Leighann Scott Boland.
Blacksburg High School has hosted this event for the past three years. Hundreds of students will have the opportunity to compete side-by-side and as opponents over two days.
MCPS’ FRC Team 401, the Copperhead Robotics, will be participating with students from all four high schools. Winners from this tournament will advance to the District Championship at the University of Maryland’s Xfinity Center the very next weekend, March 29th-31st in hopes of a spot at the “super bowl” of smarts, the FIRST World Championship in Detroit in April.
The public is highly encouraged to attend this competition at BHS for free and see the gracious professionalism environment of FRC.
The skills being learned by high school students go far beyond knowledge of tools and STEM to real world problem solving. A FIRST LEGO League Junior Expo will be held on Saturday to show how FIRST brings the robotic experience to the youngest of students.
Other FIRST programs will be available to explain how elementary and middle school students can start their path to becoming a future technology leader.
An interactive Technology Row of STEM programs and businesses will demonstrate the current and future technology opportunities in Southwest Virginia.
FIRST Chesapeake sponsors include Micron, Booz Allen Hamilton, Dominion Energy, Bechtel, Leidos, Showbest Fixtures, and Newport News Shipbuilding. FIRST Chesapeake District and Team 401 are seeking sponsors for this year’s local competition. Last year’s sponsors included: the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council, Rackspace, AEP, Automation Creations, Gen Too Technologies and Virginia Tech Department of Education.
For more information, visit www.firstchesapeake.org.
