Columbus, Ohio (January 9, 2020) – FIRST® Alumni and Robotics at Ohio State participated in the Robot in 3 Days project for the first time, sponsored by The Ohio State University College of Engineering and the Center of Robotics Innovation (CORI).FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international competition in which high school teams construct a robot up to 125 pounds under strict rules, time, and resources. These teams then compete at various events to get a chance to qualify for the FIRST Championship. Each year, FIRST releases a new FRC game with specific elements that challenge high school students to engineer a robot that can complete certain game tasks from scratch. This season’s game “kicked off” on Saturday, January 4, 2020, and a local kickoff event was held at the PAST Foundation, attracting more than 250 attendees across 20 high school teams. More information about this year’s game, Infinite Recharge, can be found on FIRST’s page (https://info.firstinspires.org/infinite-recharge).
For the first time, a group of eighteen students from The Ohio State University worked on designing and fabricating a FIRST Robotics Competition-legal robot in 72 hours right after kickoff at the College of Engineering Student Projects Building, located behind the Center for Automotive Research. Coaches and mentors from local teams were invited to participate in the build to encourage collaboration and form valuable connections between teams local to Columbus. The 72 hour build was streamed live on Twitch, which amassed upwards of 2500 viewers in total. Individuals were given the opportunity to ask questions on the live streaming service; the stream attracted questions from individuals associated with high school teams locally and as far as in Texas, California, and Italy. Detailed documentation on their robot build is available general public here: https://firstrobotics.osu.edu/ri3d.
The newly created collegiate project team has listed these goals:
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Encourage continued involvement in FIRST, thus strengthening the presence of our student organization within the FIRST community by filling volunteer and mentor positions across the state of Ohio
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Focus on prototyping, documentation, and strategic analysis to present to the FIRST community
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Allow members to gain project experience and develop individual engineering skills
FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international non-profit organization founded in Machester, NH in 1989 by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers. Their mission is to inspire PreK-12 students to be engaged in science and technology through mentor-based programs.
– Written by Derek Ho
