Capitol College was proud to host the 2011 Maryland FIRST Robotic Competition Kickoff Event for the seventh straight year, on Saturday, Jan. 8, at the Laurel, Md. campus.
The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international competition in which high school students from across the world are given six weeks to build a robot that will compete in a common challenge.
Capitol College is dedicated to furthering the education of FIRST students in Maryland, as over a dozen former FIRST participants are currently enrolled at the institution. In fact, with over $530,000 provided in scholarships to FIRST students, Capitol is the third largest provider of FIRST scholarships in the country.
The FIRST competition is a unique opportunity for budding engineers to gain hands-on experience with robotics and engineering principles in a team-oriented setting. The knowledge learned from the competition undoubtedly prepares young students for their futures in engineering education and careers.
The FRC is broken up into regional competitions, and Capitol College was honored to host the Chesapeake Regional Kickoff event again this year.
Each year’s competition is different, and at the event students are given the parameters for the challenge by inventor Dean Kamen via NASA-TV’s live video feed from New Hampshire. Additionally, each team is provided an identical kit of parts with which to build their robot. After the Kickoff Event students have six weeks to prepare their robots for the regional tournament. Those that excel will be invited to the national championship.
More than 250 students representing 33 Maryland high school teams attended the event at Capitol’s campus.