Robots Kick Up Some Fun at Annual Tech Competition

Hundreds of American high school students design and build robots that can score soccer goals

Photo: VOA - J. Taboh

Nathan Hicks, (left) FIRST competitor, with his mentor, Stewart Ocheltree, expects to return again next year, win or lose.

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Students from 59 U.S. high schools representing 11 states brought their robots to Washington recently to compete in the annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.

The event challenged high school students, working with professional mentors, to design and build robots that could score a soccer goal.

Eighteen-year-old Alison Gale was back for her fourth year of competition. Nathan Hicks, 15, was there for the robots, while 18-year old Addonis Miller got inspired to join the competition after taking a class in technology.

VOA - J. Taboh

Students at the controls, trying to get their robots to kick a soccer goal.

They were among hundreds of U.S. high school students who came to Washington to compete in a Robotics Competition created by an organization called FIRST, which stands for, "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."

'Varsity sport for the mind'

Each year, students across America work together in teams, with experienced mentors, on a particular technology project assigned to them by FIRST. They have only six weeks to complete the project before they set out for the competition.

The challenge this year was to design and build a robot that can kick a soccer ball into a goal.

The brains behind the competition is Dean Kamen, a leading American scientist and inventor who founded FIRST in 1989. His goal is to help young people discover the excitement and rewards of science and technology.

Kamen says he put FIRST together because he realized that, "the future of this country is going to depend more than ever on the technical expertise of our work force."