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Posted On: 05/08/2007

Winners crowned at FIRST Robotics Competition Championship

PlantServices.com

The FIRST Robotics Competition Championship was the culmination of 37 regional competitions held earlier this year featuring 1,300 teams from seven countries. Autodesk supports the competition through a $17 million software donation, granting student participants first-hand experience with state-of-the-art 3D technology – Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk 3ds Max software – which they used to design and pre-visualize their robots. Autodesk’s support reflects a shared mission with FIRST to create ongoing passion for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and encourage students to pursue careers in engineering.
 
Student teams built their robots from a kit of hundreds of parts. This year’s game, called “Rack ‘N’ Roll”, tested the students and their robot’s ability to hang inflated colored tubes on pegs configured in rows and columns on a 10-foot high center “rack” structure, program a robotic vision system to navigate the robot, and “lift” other robots more than 4-inches off the floor.

Winners:    Team 177 “Bobcat Robotics” of South Windsor High School in South Windsor, Connecticut; Team 190 “Gompei and the H.E.R.D.” of Massachusetts Academy of Math & Science in Worcester, Massachusetts; and Team 987 “HIGHROLLERS” of Cimarron-Memorial High School in Las Vegas, Nevada formed the Winning Alliance at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) 
                       
Awards:     Autodesk honored two exemplary teams with special awards at this year’s Championship event: Team 1625 “Winnovation Robotics Team” of Winnebago High School in Winnebago, Illinois received The Autodesk Visualization Award, which honors superiority in student animation; and Team 103 “Cybersonics“ of Palisades High School in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania received The Autodesk Inventor Award, honoring excellence in student mechanical design.
 
In addition, Team 365 “Miracle Workerz” of MOE Robotics Group in Wilmington, Delaware won the prestigious FIRST Robotics Competition Chairman’s Award, recognized as the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.