05 Jan 2015 High school tech enthusiasts build and design at 2015 FIRST Robotics event
OLATHE, Kan. – School starts back up for most next week, but some students are already kicking off 2015 with engineering, communications, and business skills. It’s all part of the kickoff for the 2015 FIRST Robotics season.
High school tech enthusiasts around the world will set out to design and build a robot, based on rules and specifications reveal Saturday by NASA. The students compete amongst more than 100 international teams. NASA revealed in a video what the teams are required to build.
People from more than 50 teams in our area met at the Garmin International World Headquarters in Olathe Saturday for the robotics reveal and to pick up the parts to build their design. The team reps then go and share what they’ve learned with the rest of their group.
Diana Ball is a mentor with Team Driven of Lee’s Summit High School.
“Our brains are probably all scrambled. How are we going to do this? How are we going to build a robot that can do so many things? It gets tougher every year,” said Ball.
James Seitz has competed with Team Driven for several years. The high school student said the biggest challenge with this reveal is, “sticking the pool noodle in the recycling bin. It looks like a three-inch opening on top of the recycling bin would be pretty hard to do.”
Seitz said a lot of preparation will go into the next six weeks, and that will include less sleep! He said it’s fun and certainly worth it.
Saturday’s meeting in Olathe is one of more than 100 kickoff meetings just like it around the world. All the groups have six weeks to work toward regional and world competitions.
CLICK HERE if you would like to learn more about the FIRST Robotics Competition.
Story by Megan Dillard, Fox4kc.com