FIRST ROBOTICS team Fitch’s Falco Tech places 2nd in state

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

The Austintown Fitch High School FIRST Robotics Team, Falco Tech, finished second in the Ohio State FRC Championship in Cincinnati.

The team is sponsored by Taylor-Winfield Corp. and Delphi. They competed in this year’s game challenge, Ultimate Ascent.

In the event, teams are challenged to build a robot that can shoot flying discs into 10-foot-high goals both autonomously and while under the control of student drivers. At the end of the match, teams receive additional points if their robot can climb a 90-inch pyramid structure near the center of the field. Teams spent six weeks and hundreds of hours building a 120-pound robot to compete.

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was founded by inventor Dean Kamen and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Woodie Flowers in 1992 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology, and to lead them into STEM career fields.