Liberty's FIRST Robotics Team wins top award and travels to St. Louis for the World Championship

The Baltimore Convention Center was full of flying disks and climbing robots on April 11-13. With hopes of winning coveted awards, high school students worked with technical mentors over a six week period to design, build and program robots to play this season’s game, ULTIMATE ASCENT™, a 3-on-3 game that called for speed and power. The action in the elimination rounds on April 13th at the Chesapeake Regional FIRST Robotics Competition grew particularly intense as teams worked together in three-team alliances. 

The most prestigious honor at the competition, the Regional Chairman’s Award, which recognizes the team that embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and best represents a model for other teams to emulate, went to Team 2199, The Robo-Lions from Liberty High School in Eldersburg, Maryland. The Robo-Lions  had to impress a panel of judges enough to select them from among 18 teams from all over the country, each with impressive accomplishments.  They now go on to compete against the winners at over 50 other Regional events worldwide for the Chairman's Award.  Past winners from among US teams have visited the White House, and teams who win this honor enter the "Hall of Fame".

Team 2199's robot placed 11st out of 64 and went into the quarter-final rounds.  Team members and mentors will be traveling to St. Louis for the April 24-27 event. The robot will be on the field with 400 others from the US, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, China and Israel, in what is sometimes called "the varsity sport for the mind".

Other teams earning spots at the FIRST Championship included Team
3941, Absolute Zero Electricity from Havre de Grace, Maryland and Team 4541, The Cavaliers, a rookie team from Archbishop Spalding in Severn, Maryland.

Dean Darryl Pines of the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland and the Chairman of the FIRST Board of Directors, Walt Havenstein, were featured guests at this 11th anniversary of the Chesapeake Regional. Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski and family members were among the spectators on Saturday.

ABOUT FIRST®
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 more than $16 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 www.usfirst.org.
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