Kori Downs
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Illinois Tech Robotics (ITR) is a
student organization where members can
learn new things and build exciting projects,
as well as help others and make an impact
by inspiring children to pursue an interest in
science and technology fields. Each year, ITR
members take part in a variety of outreach

opportunities.

Over the past year, ITR students
hosted a youth robotics competition,
volunteered at 8 youth competitions,

coordinated a season kickoff event for high
school robotics students, and participated in a
variety of public outreach events. Students in
ITR have donated hundreds of hours of their
time this year to help thousands of younger
students learn about futures in science and
technology. The vast majority of ITR’s outreach
and volunteer opportunities work closely with
a youth robotics organization known as FIRST.

For Inspiration and Recognition of

 

Student newspaper of liiinois institute of Technology since 1928

Illinois Tech Robotics volunteers at
FIRST Robotics worldchampionship

Science and Technology (FIRST) was founded
in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen with the
mission of showing students that science,
technology, and problem-solving are not
only fun and rewarding, but are proven paths
to successful careers and a bright future for
society. The organization achieves this mission
by offering robotics competitions for students
in elementary school through high school.
The competitions value not only gaining
engineering skills and creating useful machines,
but also things such as good sportsmanship,
cooperation, teamwork, and something FIRST
calls “gracious professionalism,” a way of doing
things where students learn and compete like
crazy, but treat one another with respect and
kindness in the process.

This past weekend, ITR volunteered
at the final event of the FIRST Robotics season,
the FIRST World Championship held in St.
Louis, Missouri. The event took place in several
locations throughout the city, with different
age groups competing at different venues.
More than 15 thousand students attended the

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event, as did thousands of additional parents,
mentors, supporters, and volunteers.

Illinois Tech Robotics sent a
delegation of 7 members to St. Louis to
volunteer at the event, which ran from
Wednesday, April 22 through Saturday, April
25. Members volunteered in a wide variety
of ways that helped further the program and
allowed them to interact with hundreds of
young STEM enthusiasts over the course of the
weekend. ITR’s volunteers primarily worked
with the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
championship, the highest-level competition
FIRST has available for high school students.
In FRC, a game challenge is announced at the
beginning of the year, and at competitions,
teams of three robots compete against three
other robots in a round-robin competition
followed by a playoff competition where
teams choose their teammates based on their
ranking.

ITR volunteers included referees for
the competition, field reset and repair crew,
scoring system software operators, awards

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assistants, and play-by-play announcers for
competition matches.

As always, ITR members enjoyed
volunteering their time to FIRST, and had a
great time working with the increased energy
and competition that comes with the world
championship event. Many of the ITR students
in attendance are alumni of the FIRST Robotics
program, which allows students to give back to
an organization that inspired them to pursue
science or engineering at IIT. ITR students also
get to meet high school students who might be
interested in attending IIT and participating in
ITR in the future.

Illinois Tech Robotics is a strong
and vital force in helping give students all
over the world opportunities to explore
innovative and exciting futures in the science
and technology fields. For more information
about Illinois Tech Robotics, visit their
website at illinoistechroboticsorg or join their
organization on Hakaink.

 

Photos by Kari Bowns