Washington area students enter robotics competition Washington Post
But she and a set of other students from the District school find something compelling about the challenge they received Saturday: in just six weeks, swing two big boxes of bolts, gears, hydraulics and electronic components into a robot that can maneuver with a soccer ball.
So the algebra can put off.
"I am a supernerd," Saunders said.
She is one of about 250 students from 30 Washington space schools who gathered at McKinley Technology High School for the regional kickoff of the FIRST Robotics Contest . It is the brainchild of inventor Dean Kamen -- his work includes the first portable insulin pump and the Segway -- who founded FIRST (For Afflatus and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire more young people to enter those fields.
Evaluator teams, underwritten by corporate sponsors and working with volunteer professional mentors, design and figure robots in response to a technical engineering challenge that changes from year to year. This time, more than 1,800 teams worldwide will base robots to compete in a soccer-like game called "Breakaway." The Washington square teams and 30 others from 11 states will face off at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Parade 5 and 6.
They gross their name from Richard Buckminster Fuller, a visionary engineer and inventor who is known for being the first to discover (not created because
To basis goals, he forced the players to lob a soft arcing shot with the soccer ball at the baskets. Naismith adopted this shooting talent from a game
