Local robotics teams land state grants

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development on Monday awarded 30 high schools and colleges a total of $117,000 in grants to fund teams competing in the FIRST Robotics program.

Local recipients were:

• Lafayette School Corp., $4,000
• North White School Corp., $4,000
• Purdue University FIRST, $5,000
• West Lafayette Community School Corp., $2,500

FIRST is an acronym of For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology. It is an international program in which teams of students work with professional engineers to design, build and compete with robots that race around a track and score points.

This year's theme is "Lunacy." In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Lunar Landing, the teams compete on a slick surface simulating low-gravity on the moon. The teams pick up and manipulate the "moon rocks" on the track.

Several teams will compete in the fifth annual FIRST Boilermaker Regional Robotics Competition at Purdue University from March 19 to 21 in the Purdue Armory.

There are more than 40 regional competitions throughout the U.S., and many teams compete in multiple ones.

Lafayette area teams were among 59 that competed at the Buckeye Regional Competition in Cleveland this past weekend.

Tippecanoe School Corp.'s Harrison Boiler Robotics Team won in the championship round and won the engineering inspiration award in the Ohio competition.

The West Lafayette High School robotics team won the judge's award for its overall contributions to the FIRST program. Jefferson High School's team also made it to the quarterfinals of the competition.

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