Official Championship Sponsor Qualcomm, will.i.am, Emma Dumont, Dean Kamen, and Noel Lee, cheered on young innovators from 37 countries as their robots took the playing field at the annual robotics championship in St. Louis, Mo.
Last week, more than 10,000 students from around the globe traveled to St. Louis, Mo., to put their engineering skills to the test at the annual FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship, held at the Edward Jones Dome.
The three-day event came down to a heart-pounding conclusion Saturday night in front of a roaring crowd of 25,000 when three teams from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada; The Woodlands, Texas; and Toronto, Ontario, Canada won the coveted FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Championship Winning Alliance. In this year’s game, ULTIMATE ASCENTSM, two Alliances made up of three teams each try to score as many flying discs into their goals as possible during the two-minute and 15-second match. This year, 2,546 FRC teams in 17 countries participated in 77 Regional and District competitions.
Center Grove finished with a record of 5-3 in qualification matches before coming up short in the division semi-finals. Center Grove worked with alliance partners the Digital Goats from Warren Central in Indianapolis, and the Screaming Chickens from San Antonio, TX. Robotics members will be inventors, engineers, and scientists. They are highly sought after by major educational institutions such as MIT, Cal Poly-tech, and Purdue. As they continue their education, major sponsors of FIRST Robotics also recruit them. Those sponsors include Boeing NASA, United Technologies, and the U.S. Air Force. Local sponsors of the Center Grove Red Alert Robotics team are Endresss+Hauser, Rolls Royce, Praxair, TechPoint Youth Foundation, Center Grove Education Foundation, Southside Pediatrics, Indiana Realty Pros, and Ron Gardner.
In all, more than 10,000 students, ages 6 to 18, participated in the Championship events. At the Opening Ceremonies, accomplished inventor and FIRST founder Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway among many other devices, recognized pop superstar will.i.am for his volunteer work with the not-for-profit. “I’m proud to help FIRST inspire young people to pursue science and technology careers,” will.i.am said. “The experience that students gain and the values they learn in FIRST programs are crucial to creating the innovative problem solvers of tomorrow.”
Several other U.S. and international FIRST student robotics teams earned honors for design excellence, competitive play, research, business plans, website design, teamwork, and partnerships. A not-for-profit organization founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST inspires young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.
For more information on the Center Grove High School Red Alert Team contact Mark Snodgrass, Head Coach, Center Grove Red Alert Robotics Team, SNODGRASSM@centergrove.k12.in.
Rick Ramirez, local video producer, contributed to this story.
