What is FIRST Robotics?

• Five years ago, George Mason High School enrolled in a robotics competition sponsored by FIRST, (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology). FIRST is a prestigious organization founded over a decade and a half ago by Dean Kamen, an inductee into the Inventors' Hall of Fame and founder of DEKA Research and Development Corp. The goal of FIRST it to inspire high school students to pursue careers in engineering and the sciences.

On Friday morning, part of the team left to go up to the Battle O'Baltimore at The Park School in Baltimore, Maryland. That afternoon, the team had time to do several practice rounds so that the new drive team could get practice driving with other teams.

Over the past couple days, Andrew and Matthew have been busy driving, testing, and troubleshooting the robot. They have removed the power diverter box which was causing several problems. We are going to try and compete without it, but if they make us use it, it has been fixed so it can be used again. Other than that, they have not had any more major problems with the robot.

By July 12th, Mrs. Moore will need confirmations on attendees to the Battle O'Baltimore which occurs August 8th through 9th. The event will have teams such as 365 MOE, 339 KILROY, 768 Technoworriors, and 1727 REX. Hopefully for the team, it will be a good off-season social/competitive experience.

It ends up that we have enough members of the team to go to the Battle O'Baltimore. However, neither the Petersens nor Eric will be able to attend, so we need a new drive team. Ms. Moore, Mr. Ballou, and Jade have been contacting all members to see what their plans are for getting there. If neither of them have called you, please call Jade or Ms. Moore.

If you can attend the Battle O'Battimore in early Aug., please contact Cricket ASAP. We currently have 4 or 5 members ready to go if we can get more people to go. In order to go though, we still need a car/van that take the robot. We will also need some people to go the day before to set up. If you need to contact Mr. Ballou, he will be back in town sometime next week.

Because we were not able to contact FIRST before June 30th, it will now cost us $200 instead of $150. Check your emails also. Cricket has been sending out emails about it.

We would like to thank all of our sponsors that helped us this season. Without you, we wouldn't have won the regional competition in March. Also, without your help, we couldn't have gone to the national competition in Atlanta, GA in April.

Yesterday, Wednesday, April 30, the former CEO of Fanuc Robotics came to talk to the robotics team.

The last few days have been very tense! Practice rounds were on Thursday. Qualifying rounds were played all of Friday after the opening speeches and the morning part of Saturday. The rest of Saturday was elimination rounds as well as the awards.