Award Winners and Scholarship Recipients Announced at FIRST Robotics Competition Championship in Florida

ORLANDO, Fla., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 20,000 high school students, teachers, parents and fans converged on Epcot(R) this weekend for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition Championship. Each of the 291 teams from the United States, Canada, Brazil and Puerto Rico traveled to Florida with their original robots to compete in "Zone Zeal," this year's competition game.

The Championship culminated Saturday, which Florida's House of Representatives recently designated as "FIRST Day" to congratulate all participants, mentors and sponsors in the FIRST community. At the awards ceremony, teams were honored for design excellence, competitive play, sportsmanship and high-impact partnerships between schools, businesses and communities. In addition, FIRST awarded $2 million in scholarships from leading universities, colleges and companies to individual FIRST students.

"This weekend marked the grand finale for each team's hard work throughout the year," said inventor Dean Kamen, who founded FIRST. "The energy and enthusiasm for science and technology was inspiring. I am so proud of everyone who participated in 'Zone Zeal.' It's a team effort to help kids develop essential skills like strategic thinking, self confidence and professionalism."

FIRST was created to instill an appreciation of science and technology in young people, their schools and their communities. High school students and technical mentors work as a team to design and build a robot that solves a problem using a "kit of parts" and a standard set of rules. This year, teams competed with their robots in "Zone Zeal," where robots collected soccer balls, put them into goals, then moved the goals into specified zones in order to earn points -- all in less than two minutes.

This year was the largest FIRST Championship in the organization's history.

The following honors were awarded on Saturday evening:

The Championship Chairman's Award, FIRST's most prestigious award, recognized the team that built significant and lasting partnerships through active mentoring by students, professional team members and sponsors

#175 Buzz Robotics from Enrico Fermi High School, Windsor Locks, Conn.

The Founder's Award is presented each year by FIRST Founder Dean Kamen to one organization or individual for exceptional service in advancing the ideals and mission of FIRST

John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

The Woodie Flowers Award is presented by SMALL PARTS, Inc. to an outstanding engineer or teacher participating in the robotics competition who best demonstrates excellence in teaching science, math and creative design

David Verbrugge, Engineer with team #67 The HOT Team from Huron Valley Schools, Milford, Mich.

The Championship Winning Alliance is made up of one seeded team who selected two other teams to compete with

#173 R.A.G.E. from East Hartford High School, Rockville High School and Coventry High School, East Hartford, Conn.

#71 Team Hammond from School City of Hammond, Hammond, Ind.

#66 The Penguins from Willow Run High School, Ypsilanti, Mich.

Championship Finalists

#311 Red Jammers from East Islip High School, Islip Terrace, N.Y.

#308 The "Monsters" from Walled Lake High Schools, Farmington Hills, Mich.

#180 S.P.A.M. from South Fork High School, Stuart, Fla.

General Motors Industrial Design Award

#60 Bionic Bulldogs from Kingman High School, Kingman, Ariz.

Motorola Quality Award

#121 Islanders from Middletown High School, Middletown, R.I.

Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology

#357 Royal Assault from Upper Darby High School, Drexel Hill, Pa.

Judges Award

#822 Stags from Mackenzie High School and Henry Ford High School, Detroit, Mich.

Judges Award

#190 Gompei and the H.E.R.D. from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, Worcester, Mass.

Rookie All Star

#818 Genesis '02 from Warren Consolidated Schools, Warren, Mich.

Rookie All Star

#832 Team Chiver from Roswell High School, Roswell, Ga.

Daimler Chrysler Team Spirit

#365 Miracle Workerz from MOE Robotics Group, Wilmington, Del.

Engineering Inspiration

#120 Scarabian Knights from East Technical High School, Cleveland, Ohio

Imagery

#203 One TUFF Team from Camden County Technical School, Sicklerville, N.J.

Leadership 

#233 The Space Coast Team from Rockledge High School and Cocoa Beach High School, Rockledge/Cocoa Beach, Fla.

Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship

#118 Robonauts from Clear Brook, Clear Creek and Clear Lake High Schools, League City, Texas

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship

#288 The ROBODawgs from Grandville High School, Grandville, Mich.

Xerox Creativity

#176 Aces High from Windsor Locks High School and Suffield High School, Windsor Locks, Conn.

Grand Prize Winner of the Autodesk Inventor Award 2002 

#111 Wildstangs, Rolling Meadows High School and Wheeling High School, Schaumburg, Ill.

AutoDesk Inventor Award Honorable Mention

 #610 The Coyotes from Crescent School, Toronto

#488 Team XBOT from Franklin High School, Redmond, Wash.

Grand Prize Winner of the Autodesk Award for Visualization 2002

#114 Eagle Strike from Los Altos High School, Los Altos, Calif.

Autodesk Rising Star Rookie Team

#849 The Wolf Pack from Unionville High School in Markham, Ontario

Autodesk Honorable Mention Award for Compelling Creativity

#64 The Gila Monsters from Highland High School, Gilbert, Ariz.

Autodesk Honorable Mention Award for Content Communication

#166 Blueprints from Merrimack High School, Merrimack, N.H.

Autodesk Honorable Mention Award for Technical Excellence

#45 TechnoKats from Kokomo High School, Kokomo, Ind.

For a complete listing of match results and scholarship winners, please visit the FIRST website at www.usfirst.org

About FIRST

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people, their schools and their communities. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering. With the support of many of the world's most well-known companies, the non-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition for high school students and the FIRST LEGO(TM) League for children 9-14 years old. 

www.usfirst.org

 

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