The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

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Publications > Brochures > GT FIRST | A Student Competition Group in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

In 1992, inventor DeanKamen developed the FIRST robotics competition to revitalize America's high school students' interest in science and technology. The program was designed to show students that science and technology are fun. Today, the competition has grown to more than 600 teams from nearly every state in the United States as well as teams from Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.

A high school team works with a corporate or university partner to design, build, and test a remote-controlled robot designed for a specific task that will compete in a sports-like game. There is a six-week period to accomplish this task. The robots compete in one or more of the 23 regional events held around the country and then in the national competition held each year at the Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida.

Robojackets

RoboJackets is a Georgia Tech organization whose purpose is to compete in robotics competitions, promote robotics at Georgia Tech, give students an added outlet for obtaining skills vital to their education, and add value to the surrounding community through engineering projects involving robotics. The club has about thirty members, mainly undergraduate students. Their majors range from ME to AE, CE, CS, and ISyE. The club was started in 1999 with a Battlebots competition and has since grown to include projects such as FIRST, Dragoncon, Sumobots, and Vacubots.

GT FIRST

In 2000, two Georgia Tech undergraduate students who were involved with FIRST in high school approached the RoboJackets club with the idea of participating as mentors to FIRST teams in the Atlanta area. The group joined forces with Atlanta's George Washington Carver High School to start the only team in Georgia for the 2001 competition. The team competed in the NASA Langley Regional in Virginia. They received the Judges' Award because the judges liked the fact that all the Georgia Tech students were FIRST team members when they were in high school and now they were mentoring other students.

The team (13 Carver High School students and 7 Georgia Tech undergraduates) attended the national competition in Orlando, Florida in April 2001. There were 335 teams, randomly divided into four divisions. The Prowling Panthers, as the Georgia Tech team was known, ranked 35th in their division and 174th overall.

For the 2002 competition, the group worked with Roswell High School to form team 832, Chimera. RoboJackets developed training courses to introduce the high school students to engineering, physics, and electronics that would prepare them for the building period. The team competed in the 2002 NASA Kennedy Space Center Regional in Florida and received the Rookie Award. Then they went to the nationals and won the National Rookie Award out of 200 rookie teams.

Technology Enrichment Sessions

Starting in September 2002, the GT FIRST mentors will host eleven weekly Technology Enrichment Sessions for various high schools in the Atlanta area. High school students will receive instruction by both college students and Georgia Tech professors in mechanical engineering. Several facilities on the Georgia Tech campus will be used for the weekly, two-hour sessions. Sessions are divided into two sections: a lecture and a hands-on activity, including a final project where the students design, build, and program a Lego Mindstorm© robot. The sessions will cover the following topics:

Introduction
Design Methodologies
Physics Principles
Mechanical Engineering
Locomotion
Electronics
Computer Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Safety
Chemical Engineering
Final Project and Competition

Mentoring Program

GT FIRST will provide several services for schools interested in starting a FIRST team. Our goal is to help create as many teams in Georgia as possible. During the technology sessions, teachers will be able to attend optional informational sessions that cover FIRST in more detail and provide information on how to organize a team. GT FIRST mentors will also operate a message board for those who have questions about the FIRST program. Club members and the 2002 Team Chimera robot will be available for demonstrations at local high schools that want to start a team.

For the kickoff, interested teams can view the unveiling from Georgia Tech. During the building phase, technical help will be available via the message board as well as possible machine shop use at Georgia Tech.