For Immediate Release:  March 19, 2008

                                            Re-Release Due to Correction

                                            References Inadvertently Omitted are Underlined

 

Brevard Robotics Teams Lead Regional Competition

Pink Team Named ‘FIRST’ of Regional Winners

 

            VIERA—Eight BPS high school FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics teams competed last week in the FIRST Florida Regional Competition in the new University of Central Florida Arena in Orlando. There were 61 teams competing; 38 from Florida, 10 from Puerto Rico, one from the United Kingdom and the remaining teams spanned the eastern United States from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Carolina. Brevard’s Pink Team led the competition, continuing its strong record of success.

BPS winners included:

  • Team 233 – Pink Team (Rockledge High, Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr., High, Viera High): Regional Winner #1, Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
  • Team 801 – Horsepower (Merritt Island High, Edgewood Jr./Sr. High, Jefferson Middle,  Merritt Island Christian School, Divine Mercy Catholic School): Imagery Award
  • Team 1592 – Bionic Tigers (Cocoa High): Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award
  • Team 2023 – PiraTech (Palm Bay High): Web site Award

“Truly, all of our students who compete in this program are winners,” said Superintendent Dr. Richard A. DiPatri. “But then, winning isn’t the ultimate victory. The technical skill that these students develop, along with the ‘gracious professionalism’ that this competition engenders, equates to a tremendous educational experience that is unparalleled.”

While this is an annual event for BPS high school robotics teams, this was a “first” for Brevard elementary and middle school FIRST LEGO League teams who came along to observe. Twenty-one schools sent approximately 255 elementary and middle school students on a field trip to experience the regional competitions. All visiting students wore T-shirts provided by the Brevard Schools Foundation through a donation from GovConnection.

Currently, there are eight high school FIRST Robotics teams in BPS. Students at each of the district’s 15 high schools have the opportunity to join a team, and by 2011, each high school will have its own team. Brevard has been and continues to be a Florida leader in robotics competition, given its high number of teams and high level of student participation.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an event where teams have a defined amount of time to understand the given challenge, design a robot to accomplish the mission and then compete on a standard “game field” for overall supremacy against all competitors. The competition begins at the local level; grows to the regional level and culminates nationally and internationally.

-BPS-