Area teams to compete in robotics
The teams are paired with professionals who help with design problems.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Teams from Chaney, Warren G. Harding and Girard high schools will be at Cleveland State University on Thursday through Saturday to compete in the fifth annual FIRST Buckeye Regional Robotics Competition.
Altogether, 42 teams from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin have entered the competition, which will require them to remotely maneuver robots they have designed and built through a game resembling basketball.
The high school teams pair up with local sponsors who can help with design, engineering and other elements of the robot-building process.
The young people team up with professionals and learn to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way.
Chaney is working with Youngstown State University and Star Supply; Harding is paired with Delphi Corp.; and Girard, with Indalex.
Building and operating the robots involves skills in science, mathematics and technology.
How it's done
This year's game is called "Aim High." The teams have two-minute and 10-second matches during which their robots must travel around a playing field scoring points by placing balls in various goals and returning to their starting point.
The contest requires that the robots must be preprogrammed to move autonomously during the first 10 seconds of the match.
Students guide them remotely for the remaining two minutes.
Each team is given an identical kit of parts from which the robot must be built.
The teams will play practice rounds Thursday, and the competition will run all day Friday and during the morning hours Saturday.
FIRST, which stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," was created by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire students to pursue careers in science and technology.
The event, to be held at Cleveland State's Wolstein Center, is free and open to the public. The NASA Robotics Alliance Project is a major sponsor of the competition.