UTC, UMaine Students Prepare for Robotics Competition
Contact: Tom Weber (207) 581-3777
ORONO — High school students from the United Technologies Center in Bangor and their mentors from the University of Maine have teamed up to build a robot that they hope will give its mechanical opponents a run for their money in an upcoming competition in Boston.
The public is invited to see the completed creation at an open house Feb. 18, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m, at the UTC Robotics Lab at 200 Hogan Rd. in Bangor. The 15-member team, known as Fatal Error, will compete with their robot in the Boston regional of the 2008 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition to be held March 27-29 at Boston University’s Agganis Arena.
The robotics competition was started in 1992 by the entrepreneur Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway personal transport device, to help high school students discover the rewards and excitement of science, engineering and technology.
This is the second year that the UMaine Robotics Club, made up mostly of engineering students, has mentored the UTC students. In its 2007 rookie year, the team placed 26th in the 49-team Hartford regional, says Ryan T. Foley, a 4th-year mechanical engineering major who founded the campus robotics club in 2006 and remains its vice president.
Beginning with a common kit of basic parts — but no instructions — the team has only about six weeks to design, build, program and test its robot, which will be shipped to Boston after its public unveiling. There, the Fatal Error robot — 130 pounds, 4 -feet tall, with an arm that can reach 8-feet high — will race competitors around a track and earn points by manipulating large inflated balls.
This year’s competition will involve more than 37,500 high school students from every U.S. state as well as Brazil, Canada, Chile, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The championship will be held in Atlanta in April.