Swarm of Young Engineers Gather at Poly for Robotics Competition Kickoff

Polytechnic’s Center for Youth in Engineering and Science (YES Center) was proud to host the local kickoff event for the 2007 FIRST Robotics Competition on January 6, 2007. Over 230 excited students from 24 New York City high schools gathered at Poly to watch a live NASA satellite feed sent across North America from FIRST headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire (you can view the event online on NASA’s website).

Following the broadcast, students eagerly discussed strategies to tackle the robotic challenge presented to them while enjoying lunch and then proceeded to afternoon workshops on Sensors, Pneumatics, and C Programming. The competition challenges teams of students and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in nationwide regional competitions. This year’s competition will involve over 32,000 high-school students from across the nation and around the world.

FIRST Robotics Competition is a unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help high-school-aged young people discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and scientists can be. For more information, visit www.usfirst.org.