Aurora, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/18/2011 -- Inventor Dean Kamen and will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas launched the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) 20th anniversary season in January with the Kickoff of the new “LOGO MOTION” game. Teams participating in the FIRST program, like Geneva High School’s ROBOVIKES, then had a frantic six weeks to build a robot from a kit of parts, made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. Working with Mentors, students have those six weeks to design, build, program and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge. The payoff for the ROBOVIKES’ hard work and ingenuity was the Midwest Regional Competition at the UIC Pavilion on March 24, 25, and 26. As they did last year, the ROBOVIKES made it into the competition’s equivalent of the Final Four – but their Alliance with perennial powerhouse, the Bomb Squad from Mt. Home [AK] H. S. and the Broncobots from Lee’s Summit North H.S. [MO], fell short of the Championship round, and they finished 3rd in the competition.

If you walked into the UIC Pavilion’s basketball court during the competition, you saw a scene that was part athletic field, part robot “pit”, and part trade show exhibit – and all excitement – the 2011 FIRST Robotics Midwest Regional Tournament. Competing in the tournament were over 50 teams and hundreds of kids from all over the Midwest, Texas, New Jersey, and long-distance-travel-winner Turkey. The Pavilion was filled with cheering students, parents, teachers, life-sized mascots, and sponsors for two days of elimination matches and Saturday afternoon’s Big Show – the “Elite Eight”. Although the way FIRST structures their competition the Top Eight in the seeding matches become the Top Twenty-Four, as each of the teams who placed in the top 8 after the qualifying rounds choose 2 other teams to create their 3-team “Alliance”. The FIRST program is every bit as much about “life skills” as it is about winning competitions. Those life skills include competing (including “points for just showing up”), helping others to compete, Gracious Professionalism (A FIRST Credo), forming alliances, developing strategies, and doing it all in real-time.

Geneva High School’s ROBOVIKES team (sponsored by The Label Printers/Burgess Norton/Wm. Wright & Associates, Inc./SRT-Nypro), after a day and a half of intense competition were chosen as an Alliance partner by the “Elite Eight” team, the Bomb Squad (sponsored by jcpenney/Baxter Healthcare Corp/The Science and Technology Group), and the Broncobots (sponsored by Honeywell/ METCRAFT Industries, Inc./R & D Tool and Engineering/Kansas City Power & Light/Black and Veatch/Cerner Corporation/Kastle Grinding/High Tech Laser & Engraving/Show Me Controls/Weld Tech/Westlake Ace Hardware/Lee’s Summit H-Vee/DAYCO/Jon Schimpf, PDCLLC).

During the competition, most of the team worked on “scouting reports” – with the help of a “Team Evaluation Form”. And both students and mentors kept running back and forth between the “pit” and the stands. The competition is structured so that only three ROBOVIKES actually take the floor when their robots are competing, so each team stakes out some “home turf” in the stands. Sam Kintop, a GHS graduate, enrolled in Waubonsee Community College, and a robot “driver” on the ROBOVIKES rookie team has been a mentor the last two years, and was in the Pavilion for the competition – and working almost as hard as the team.

Geneva High School teacher Mary Keyzer, her husband Kevin [a ceramics engineer], and The Label Printers mentor Joe Kane, were very pleased that the ROBOVIKES bot was largely designed and built by the team. A number of robots in the competition had a bit more of the look of professional involvement. (Unlike school science projects and Soap Box Derby entrants, FIRST does not discourage sponsor’s engineers/mentors from active involvement in robot building.) In the 2009 Midwest Regional, the Robovikes made it to the “Elite Eight” round, but were eliminated in the first round. In 2010, the team advanced to the semi-finals, finishing 4th overall.

Said Joe Kane, “We keep getting better every year. Just wait until next year.” A sentiment any Chicago Cubs fan can appreciate.

ROBOVIKE Team Members:
Juniors: Trevor Deem, Keane Hensley, Josh Kilmer, Jake Urban, Jack Wilbur
Sophomores: Derik Baer, Mitchell Baer, Will Camacho, Matt Fee, Michael Miltner, Justin Mui
Freshmen: Grif McDonell, Will Morrison, Mike Phillips, Quade Spellman, Ken Wendt

About Label Printers, Aurora
The Label Printers, Aurora, IL, started in business in 1967, manufacturing simple label constructions in a 1,000 square foot space, with 1 employee, serving the local Chicago market.

Today, the company has evolved into one of the 100 largest converters in the United States. The Label Printers owns and operates two facilities in Aurora, Illinois, manufacturing and distributing labels and packaging products to thousands of customers in 25 countries around the world. The company’s packaging products are certified to ISO 9001 standards, and their quality is backed up by their 99.6% Quality Acceptance Rating.

The Label Printers is a member of NASPO (North American Security Products Organization, http://www.naspo.info), IACC (International Anticounterfeiting Coalition, www.iacc.org), CACP (Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, http://www.theglobalipcenter.com/index.php/cacp), TLMI (Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, http://www.tlmi.com) and the FTA (Flexographic Technical Association, http://www.flexography.org).

About Geneva High School (Community Unit School District 304)
Geneva Community High School is over 130 years old and has over 1,800 students, 150 faculty members, and offers more than 150 courses in eleven academic areas. Students may also enroll in one of thirty-seven academic courses in the Fox Valley Career Center curriculum. Advanced placement and honors courses are offered in all academic areas supported by the expansion of our Acceleration and Enrichment program.

While maintaining an outstanding tradition of excellence in education, athletic and extracurricular programs, our school provides a wide variety of community service learning experiences throughout Geneva and the Fox Valley. Our experienced administrative team and dedicated staff, along with the support of the community of Geneva, offer one of the finest educational opportunities available throughout the state of Illinois.

About the “Logo Motion” Game:
In the FRC “LOGO MOTION” robotics game, two alliances of three teams will compete on a 27-by-54-foot field with poles, attempting to earn points by hanging as many triangle, circle and square logo pieces as possible. Bonus points will be earned for each robot that can hang and assemble logo pieces to form the FIRST logo. Robots can also deploy Mini-Bots to climb vertical poles for a chance to earn additional points.

About the FIRST Robotics Competition
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual competition that helps students discover the excitement of science, engineering, and technology and the rewards a career in STEM can bring. More than 45,000 high-school students on over 1,800 teams from the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Herzegovina, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the U.K. will participate in this year’s competition.

In 1992, the FIRST Robotics Competition began with 28 teams and a single 14-by-14-foot playing field in a New Hampshire high school gym. This season more than 1,800 teams – including 278 rookie teams – will participate. Forty-three regional competitions in the U.S., Canada, and Israel, plus seven district competitions and one state championship in Michigan, will lead up to the 2010 FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 15-17.

FIRST programs are spearheaded by more than 90,000 dedicated volunteers worldwide, most of them professional engineers and scientists who mentor the next generation of innovators.

Participating students are eligible to apply for nearly $15 million in scholarships offered by leading universities, colleges, and companies.

About FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)
Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from three out of every five Fortune 500 companies and nearly $12 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) and FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC®) for high-school students, FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL®) for 9 to 14-year-olds, (9 to 16-year-olds outside the U.S. and Canada) and Junior FIRST® LEGO® League (Jr.FLL) for 6 to 9-year-olds. Gracious Professionalism™ is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to http://www.usfirst.org.

FIRST 2011 CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT –
APRIL 27 – 30 – Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, MO

EDUCATE TO INNOVATE –
A campaign announced by President Obama to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/educate-innovate

http://www.nationalroboticsweek.org/