By Melanie Petrucci, Contributing Writer
Marlborough – Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School’s Robotics Team, the Aztechs 157, hosted a local kickoff for this year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Competition Jan. 7. Local high school teams, who had been waiting since last fall, gathered to learn the name of this year’s game and to pick up game kits. Twenty-five dedicated teams with over 300 people attended the event in spite of a winter storm advisory that was in effect.
FIRST is a nonprofit worldwide youth organization, with over 38,000 teams. FIRST’s primary goal is to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology.
According to the FIRST website, www.firstinspires.org, students ages 14-18 compete with 120-pound robots of their own design. Team members work together cooperatively and are judged by how well they work together.
This year’s game is called FIRST STEAMWORKS featuring “two adventure clubs from an era in which technology relied on steam power to prepare their airships for the ultimate long distance race.” What is unique about this year’s game is that there will be human players on the playing field.
Marcus Fletcher, Assabet paraprofessional and Aztechs’ project manager, explained, “We are exposing kids to things that they might never have been exposed to before. You are able to show them things and help kids push their boundaries.”
Teams will work for the next six weeks, planning and strategizing as they develop their robots to meet this year’s challenge. Because they work closely together and often share meals and travel experiences, teams become very tight-knit communities within their schools.
“You learn from your failures and you don’t necessarily learn from your successes,” said team parent and mentor John Vedder, who is an engineer. “You never want to squelch an idea because you don’t know where that idea is going to lead you.”
He also shared about the upcoming build season, “The build season is loads of fun. You don’t know what your challenge is going to be and then we go to competition and see how all the other teams have solved the same problem.”
Cindy Zomar, corporate liaison for the Aztechs and the admissions and public relations coordinator for the school said, “We want to thank Boston Scientific who has been a major sponsor for our team and has been for several years. They provided the breakfast food for the kickoff and have been a terrific partner.”
Northeast regional competitions begin the first weekend in March and the season culminates with two world championship events that take place in Houston, Texas, April 19-22, and St. Louis, Missouri, April 26-29. For more information about FIRST, visit www.firstinspires.org.
