Student teams from across the United States will gather at Reliant Park in Houston April 3-5 for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Lone Star regional competition. The national championship, including teams from around the world, will also be held in Houston April 10-12.

This regional FIRST Robotics competition is part of an international program dedicated to increasing interest in science and engineering and inspiring the next generation of technical experts. The event is sponsored by NASA in cooperation with corporations, educational institutions and organizations in Texas.

The students use their creativity, knowledge, leadership skills and a common set of rules to build robots that will compete against other robots. Working side-by-side with professional engineers and technicians from their sponsoring corporations, colleges, and government agencies, the students have a chance to see what real-world engineering is all about. Through this unique hands-on experience the students gain valuable knowledge of engineering, mechanics, project leadership, time management, task sequencing, physics, computers and teamwork.

This year’s challenge, ‘Stack Attack,’ was announced in January. The teams had six weeks to work collaboratively with their professional mentors and sponsors to construct working robots. NASA provides mentors and supports teams through educational grants to help build better science programs. This year NASA has sponsored 207 out of the 800 competing teams and seven of the 23 regional competitions.

During the intense competitions, the robots must first be able to work autonomously using on-board sensors to detect and attack their opponent’s stack of plastic containers and defend their own stack. The students will then take control, commanding their robot creations to position the most containers on their side of the playing field and also stack them as high as possible.

Regional and national awards are presented for excellence in design, engineering innovation, control systems, demonstrated team spirit, sportsmanship, creativity and many other categories.

Texas teams include students from Clear Brook, Clear Creek, Clear Lake, Greenville, Sam Rayburn, Pasadena, South Houston, Dobie, Richardson, John H. Regan, La Porte, South San, Edgewood, Memorial, John F. Kennedy, Cinco Ranch, Robert M. Shoemaker, Edison, Round Rock, Stoney Point, South Grand Prairie, Canutillo, Lyndon B. Johnson, Bruni, United Engineering and Technology Magnet and Booker T. Washington High Schools and West Briar Middle School.

The Houston competitions are open to the public, free of charge. The events on April 5, 11 and 12 can be viewed on NASA TV. NASA TV is on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

The NASA TV schedule and Internet viewing resources are available at:
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

More information on FIRST and the competitions is available at:
www.usfirst.org/

Information about the NASA Robotics Education Project can be found at:
http://robots.nasa.gov/