AIS Wins Three Awards at Robotics Competition
AIS is proud to announce the success of its robotics team at the Peachtree Regional FIRST Robotics Competition 2006, where 45 teams from nine states competed. The AIS team, made up of 45 students in Grades 7-12, won three major Peachtree Regional awards: the 2006 Robotics Competition, The Autodesk Visualization Award and the DaimlerChrysler Team Spirit Award.
“We are exceptionally proud of our students. Our robotics team is only three years old and we have seen steady growth each year. Our students are innovative, creative and work very well together. That teamwork was especially recognized at the competition when we won the Team Spirit award,” commented Dr. Brindley.
The International House of Robotics (iHOT) team started planning last May, led by team captains Santiago Cadavid and Adrien Pellerin. The students are a year-round extracurricular team and spend after school and weekend time creating their robot. The team is charged with many functions: fundraising, animation, programming, engineering, public relations and finance. The students had six weeks from the beginning of January to mid-February to bring it all together. The team is supported by corporate sponsors as well as teacher and parent mentors but, as Dr. Brindley pointed out, “This is the first year that our robot was designed and built exclusively by students.”
In 2006, the competition will reach more than 28,000 high-school-aged students on more than 1,125 teams in 33 regional events. Teams come from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of plenty of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines. The mission of the FIRST robotics competition is to create a business/education partnership while challenging and inspiring students to design a functional robot. The iHOT students combined efforts with corporate partners Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Siemens, the BellSouth Foundation, Microsoft, IBM, Pattillo Construction Co., John Whitehead, Cisco, Alcatel, Weatherly Inc. and MIKON.
The team thanks these corporate partners, and Kimberly Clark mentors Mike Houston, John Tripp and Patrick Payne as well as the following AIS mentors: Jean Millkey (Robotics Coordinator); Brenda Hasham (PR and Spirit mentor, and lead cheerleader); Monica Dalvi (PR Mentor); Tomasz Dindorf (Engineering Mentor); Erica Endicott (Web Mentor); Jill Herron and Brian Edwards (Animation Mentors); Alan Preis (Programming Mentor); Kellie Dominguez (Finance Mentor); and Emily Henning (Fundraising Mentor). They also thank the many wonderful team parents who supervised the iHOT work sessions, provided lunches and refreshments, assisted with transportation, and cheered on the team!
AIS’s robotics team is heading to the national competition where they will be competing with more than 300 teams. The national competition will be held at the Georgia Dome from April 27 through 29. The event is open and free to the public. Please come and show your support!