20080105_Kickoff

Kickoff for the 2008 First Robotics Challenge occurred on Saturday January 5, following the tradition of starting the new year with unveling the FIRST game challenge for the year on the first Saturday of January. Speakers included FIRST founder (Dean Kamen), FIRST president (Paul Gudonis), MIT professor (Woodie Flowers) and NASA engineer (Dave Laverty). THese and others spoke to inspire student and mentor involvement in the future, and helping our young people grow and make a positive impact on that future through science and technology.

The robotics challenge for 2008 is called 'Overdrive'. An alliance partnership of 3 robots will race around a track and score points using large 10 pound track balls. The visual technology themes (Animation and CAD) for 2008 will be released on Monday, January 7.

Muncie/Delaware FIRST Robotics hosted 63 people at Ball State University's Department of Technology for the Kickoff of the 2008 FIRST Robotics Challenge. As a community program, it was great to be able to share thie unveiling of this year's challenge with so many people.

Students and mentors who may be interested in participating in this year's challenge will need to come on board right away, as the team only has 6 weeks to create a robot, document any activity, crreate a 30 second animation, and experience the trials and tribulations of working on a time budget to produce a functioning product.