Austintown Fitch to host robotics event

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

The Northeast Ohio FIRST Robotics Alliance, in conjunction with the OH WOW! Children’s Center’s 7 Days of STEM, announces the 2014 Mahoning Valley Robotics Challenge high school competition is set for Sept. 20 at Austintown Fitch High School.

The action will take place in the main gymnasium from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The MVRC is free and open to the public. Concessions will be available with proceeds helping to fund future NEOFRA robotics competitions.

NEOFRA is hosting a charity food drive at the MVRC to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley. Spectators are encouraged to bring nonperishable food items and drop them off at the food-donation table when they arrive. The most-needed food items are peanut butter, cereal, canned fruit and vegetables, tuna fish, dry pasta and macaroni and cheese.

FIRST robotics teams from Warren G. Harding, Girard, Champion, Austintown Fitch, Canfield and Cardinal Mooney high schools will be a part of a 24-team field that includes teams from across Ohio and Pennsylvania.

This is the first Mahoning Valley event to showcase these robots competing on a regulation playing field.

In an aerial assist match, two alliances of three student-operated robots each must quickly pass large game pieces across the field and score them into their goals while under defense from the opposing alliance. The contact is real, the energy high and the action intense.

The 2014 MVRC could not exist without the support of signature sponsors: the Youngstown State University College of STEM and LED3, Premium Digital Displays.

For information about sponsoring local FIRST robotics teams or NEOFRA robotics competitions, stop by the event information table to pick up handouts, ask questions of event staff or arrange a VIP tour of the competition and pit areas for an up-close look at what FIRST is all about.

Contact Andy Yantes at 330-540-6897, or visit www.neofra.com with additional questions.

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was founded by inventor Dean Kamen and MIT professor Woodie Flowers to inspire young people’s greater interest and participation in science, technology, engineering and math endeavors and to lead them into STEM career fields. FIRST offers four levels of robotics programs for students in grades K-12.