Feb 28 2011
New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark was the destination chosen for the annual FIRST Tech Challenge. A forum to launch some of the city’s talented teen engineers, it brought together 48 teams to the Fleisher Athletic Center at campus.
Turning sprockets, wires, brackets and pulleys for months, students developed and displayed self-propelled creations at the qualifiers in an attempt to reach the state tournament.
Some teams struggled to overcome the obstacles like the Onion Robotics team which had neither adult guidance nor a robotics club at the school campus. They began their own and did so in each other’s homes. However, they did have the support of another team from which Onion Robotics borrow their terrain for practice.
Regional director for FIRST, Donald Bowers stated the importance of team building and held it as more important than building a robot. The competition also had award categories such as the “Cooperation”, “Motivate” and “Inspire”. “Say, Watt?” won the top prize, the “Inspire Award” for sharing their terrain with Onion Robotics for practice.
Columbia High School Cougars from South Orange reigned as the ultimate winners of the competition. The two winning teams will go on to compete in the world championship tournament held at St. Louis in April.
Source: http://www.usfirst.org