FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) launches its FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC®) season with a Kickoff event. The 2010 season will include more than 1,800 teams (over 45,000 high-school students) participating in 50 regional and district events. All teams will be shown the 2010 game field for the first time and will receive a common Kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. They will then have six weeks to design and build robots to meet this year’s engineering challenge.

Public officials across the nation will deliver remarks, including:

— Hon. John Lynch, Governor of New Hampshire
— Hon. Linda Lingle, Governor of Hawaii; and
— Hon. Rick Perry, Governor of Texas.

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC®) is an annual competition that challenges high-school students – working alongside professional Mentors – to design and build a robot of their own, and compete in a ‘varsity sport for the mind’ that measures the effectiveness of each robot, the power of teamwork and collaboration, and Gracious Professionalism™. Students build and program their own robots against a field of competitors and experience the excitement of science, engineering, technology and innovation.

When: Saturday, January 9, 2010 – 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Where: Southern New Hampshire University, 2500 North River Road, Manchester, N.H.

Remote teams will tune in via NASA-TV broadcast and Web cast from 57 local Kickoffs. To locate teams in your area, visit www.usfirst.org and click on the map in the top right corner. For a listing of local Kickoff locations, visit http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=10406.

2010 FIRST Kickoff Event Locations:

UNITED STATES
AK, Anchorage
NC, Mooresville
AZ, Phoenix
NH, Manchester
CA, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose
NJ, Newark, Skillman
CO, Denver
NV, Las Vegas
CT, Farmington
NY, Brooklyn, Rochester, Stony Brook
FL, Melbourne, Orlando, Plantation
OH, Cleveland, Columbus
GA, Atlanta
OK, Stillwater
HI, Honolulu
OR, Corvallis, Oregon City
ID, Idaho Falls
PA, Drexel Hill, Pittsburgh
IL, Chicago
SC, Clemson
IN, Indianapolis, West Lafayette
TN, Memphis
KS, Olathe
TX, Austin, Houston, Plano, San Antonio
MA, Boston, Worcester
UT, Salt Lake City
MD, Laurel
VA, Hampton, Richmond
MI, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Novi
WA, Cheney, Mountlake Terrace
MN, Minneapolis
Washington, D.C.
MO, Saint Louis
WI, Pewaukee
MS, Stennis Space Center

CANADA
ON, Toronto

ISRAEL
Central Israel, Herzelia

FIRST
www.USFIRST.org

::Design World::

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Filed Under: Student programs, Motion control • motor controls, Mechatronics

 

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