Entertainment Eng. and Design Home
Engineering College Home
January 05, 2008
The Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, NSTec, Cirque du Soleil, the Regional Planning Committee, and the entire UNLV campus officially welcomed the Fourth Annual FIRST FRC 2008 Robotics Competition Saturday, January 5 at 7:00 a.m. How did we kickoff our fourth season:
Hundreds of Nevada's Brightest High School Students Gather for 2008 FIRST Robotics Kickoff
Teams from 15 clark county school district high schools, Pahrump High School and a Kingman, Arizona community team,now have six weeks to design and build robot to compete in regional competition to be held March 27-29 at the Thomas and Mack Center.
Cimarron-Memorial High School graciously coordinated and hosted the kickoff
Details: FIRST (For Ispiration and Recognition of science and Technology) launches its largest-ever FIRST Robotics Competition season with a kickoff event. The 2008 season will include over 1,500 teams participating in 41 regional events, including a regional at UNLV.
Teams watched the kickoff that was broadcast nationally by NASA enthusiastically listening to accomplished inventor Dean Kamen, who founded FIRST in 1989 to inspire young to become science and technology leaders. The FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual event that challenges high-school students - working with professional mentors - to design and build a robot, and compete in high-intensity events that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of team strategy and collaboration, and the determination of students. In the process, students discover the rewards and excitement of education, the importance of establishing relationships with people, and careers in science, engineering, and technology.
NSTec, National Security Technologies, LLC presented a check for $50,000 to the Regional Planning Committee before all the teams present. Their donation will support both the 2008 and 2009 Las Vegas Regional Competition.
Cirque du Soleil announced their inaugural team sponsorship of $10,000 to Cimarron-Memorial High School. Six local teams prepared an essay for the Cirque FIRST competition. Three teams were selected from the six entries to then present to Cirque du Soleil in order to earn the sposnorship. Basic and Foothill High Schools were amongst the three finalists selected to make presentations. Cirque du Soleil commended all teams on their successful entries.
The kickoff ended with teams picking up the 'official' kit of parts to begin building their robots. Officially, they have now entered FIRST OVERDRIVE, the game for the 2008 competiton. UNLV college of engineering students will mentor the teams to assist with the building of their robots.
Would you like to Engineer a Difference and get involved: email christine.wallace@unlv.edu
Best of Luck to all our teams that attended our kickoff (better know as our local FIRST family): Pahrump, Kingman, AZ, Cimarron-Memorial, Palo Verde, Clark, Coronado, Rancho, Del Sol, Legacy, Arbor View, Canyon Springs, Eldorado, SECTA, Valley, and Foothill High Schools.
