For Immediate Release:   March 31, 2008

 

Brevard Robotics Teams Continue National Success

 

VIERA—Robotics teams from across Brevard Public Schools experienced unparalleled success this past weekend, building to the international robotics contest coming April 17-19 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The following FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics teams won in their respective regional competitions:

  • Team 386, Team Voltage (Melbourne High School, Satellite High School, West Shore Jr./Sr. High School) Regional Champions – Palmetto/South Carolina Regional Competition at Clemson University (Coach Tom Gabeler)
  • Team 233, the Pink Team (Rockledge High School, Viera High School, Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School) – Regional Champions – Hawaii Regional Competition (Coach Marian Passmore)
  • Team 1592, Bionic Tigers (Cocoa High School) – Regional Champions – Colorado Regional Competition (Coach Vicki Huffman)

In addition to these wins, the teams also picked up special awards. Those honors included: Team Voltage won the Chrysler Team Spirit Award; the Pink Team won the Rockwell Automation - Innovation in Controls Award and Consistence in Excellence honors; and the Bionic Tigers won the General Motors Industrial Design Award, and second place in the Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award. Vicki Huffman, coach of the Bionic Tigers, won the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award, the highest honor that can be given to a FIRST Robotics mentor.

“Congratulations to the coaches, students, mentors, volunteers and parents who transform dreams into reality and who live this competition’s ideal of ‘gracious professionalism,’” said Superintendent Dr. Richard A. DiPatri. “Brevard Public Schools is clearly a national leader in robotics, and we look forward to a successful future with this program.”

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.

“This weekend has seen unparalleled success for Brevard Schools’ Robotics teams,” said Jim Lyons, a member of the Florida FIRST Executive Committee. “Congratulations to Brevard Schools and to each of these teams.”

Brevard has been and continues to be a Florida leader in robotics competition. This is due to its high number of teams and high level of student participation. This weekend’s success was the second regional win for the Pink Team, having won top honors in the FIRST Florida Regional competition earlier this month in Orlando.

“These accomplishments support the fact that the BPS FIRST Robotics initiative will be not only ‘First in Florida,’ but first in the world,” said Dr. David Baldaia, robotics program coordinator for Brevard Public Schools. “The best is yet to come.” 

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-