Robotics competition kicks off at NC State Jan. 8
What: The College of Engineering at North Carolina State University hosts the 2011 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) North Carolina Regional Kick-Off Event. The robotics competition, styled as a “varsity sport of the mind,” challenges teams of high schoolers and their mentors to solve a common problem in six weeks using the same set of parts. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in competitions that will be held on “playing fields” at the NC State Fairgrounds later this year. FIRST was founded by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway human transporter. Media coverage is invited.
Who: Thirty-eight high school teams and 900 students and mentors, mostly from North Carolina, will participate. The participants will watch a video that describes this year’s competition and walk a full-sized “playing field” to get a deeper understanding of the game. In addition, 18 rookie teams will begin building their robots. Teams will return to NC State with their completed robots for the North Carolina Regional Tournament April 7-9.
When: The kick-off event begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 8. A tour of the 2011 playing field begins at noon and rookie teams will move to NC State’s Centennial Campus to start building the robots immediately following the tour.
Where: The kick-off and the playing field tour will be held at the J.S. Dorton Arena at the NC State Fairgrounds. The robot-building portion will be held in Engineering Building III on NC State’s Centennial Campus.
Admission: The event is open to FRC participants.
More information: Visit www.ncfirstrobotics.org.
Media Contacts: Marie Hopper, NC FIRST Robotics, ncfirstrobots@gmail.com, 336.375.3861; Kay Leager, NC State Engineering Academic Affairs, leager@ncsu.edu, 919.227.6354
