No Hitting Below the Drive Belt

Shturmovik[KGB] writes: "As per NASA/JPL: "Tune in today and Saturday and see hundreds of robots and their creators -- high school students -- compete in a national robotics competition sponsored by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Seven teams sponsored by JPL are taking part in the contest at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center in Orlando, Fla. Watch the students and their robots compete on NASA Television or on the Web during a live broadcast and Webcast of the FIRST Robotics National Competition on Friday, April 6 from noon to 2 p.m., PDT (3 to 5 p.m, EDT) and on Saturday, April 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., PDT (1 to 5 p.m., EDT)." The Webcast can be accessed here. The NASA TV schedule is also available."

Comments

FIRST is great, but...

[profesor]

...just like all the TV shows, they're not robots, they're all remotely controlled. If you want to see a real robotics competition, go see the Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest in Hartford, CT in a couple weeks. There's also a few throughout the country sponsored by local clubs such as Seattle Robotics.

Don't get me wrong, FIRST is great. I wish it was available when I was in high school! And Dean Kamen is my hero...

Re:"Death Metal"

[Motor]

Only loosely on-topic here but, on the subject of British TV being shown in the U.S:

Have you seen Spaced? It's a brilliant geek comedy. They have an episode with a wonderful piss-take of Robot Wars and Fight Club called "Robot Club".

The first rule of Robot Club is: You don't talk about Robot Club!

Re:Will there be a NASA built bot?

[NevDull]

It won't be long before one of the contestants wanders off, complaining, "I have a horrible pain in all the diodes down my left side."

Will there be a NASA built bot?

[Shanep]

It will probably drive out of the ring, into the car park and onto the highway, get lost and all the while arguing with itself about metric vs. imperial.

FP from Epcot

[patrik]

This is the coolest thing in HS. IF you're not in HS become a mentor and you can still build.

If anyone else from the games sees this good luck, and come by Team 122's pit and ask for Patrik. Maybe we can start a /. Team next year. . .

Patrik, Team 122
-------------
Just your ordinary BOFH :) http://pjbutler.dhs.org/me

That Dean guy and his damn Ginger again :)

[nhavar]

It should be noted somewhere that FIRST is a group started by Dean Kamen to get kids into science. He's got the whole idea that scientist should be revered like rock stars. I would say that slowly he's getting his wish.

These competitions are drawing crowds of thousands and seem to be harder to contain to highschool football fields and gyms. A big shift in the culture at least here in the US is happening. There are now 3 robot competitions on TV (BattleBots, Robotica, and Robotwars) with rumors of a fourth coming along. More and more toys are turning to scientific pursuits. The majority of people I know through work, church, and web spend most of their TV time watching TLC/Discovery/History channels instead of MTV/AllyMcBeal/Buffy.

While I think sports are good for our youth I wish that arts and sciences could get equal funding. And while the argument is that arts and science don't bring people in and get them involved and winning science teams don't seem to get people willing to part with money, I think that events like these disprove that.