BAE Systems is sponsoring five local high school teams that will participate in the Hawai‘i’s FIRST Robotics regional competition, which is co-sponsored by NASA and BAE Systems at the University of Hawai‘i yesterday and today. More than 500 students from
BAE Systems is sponsoring five local high school teams that will participate in the Hawai‘i’s FIRST Robotics regional competition, which is co-sponsored by NASA and BAE Systems at the University of Hawai‘i yesterday and today.
More than 500 students from across the state and the Mainland were expected to attend.
FIRST brings teams and their mentors together in a competition that emphasizes teamwork, innovation, and strategy to design and build robots capable of performing competitive tasks.
BAE Systems invested more than $1 million in FIRST through donations of money, resources and employee volunteering, making the company the largest corporate contributor to the competition.
“BAE Systems’ local and Mainland personnel have been outstanding in their support of the Hawai‘i regional,” said Alex Ho, state coordinator for the FIRST Robotics Competition. “We are hopeful that more companies will step forward to do what BAE Systems has done to assist the state of Hawai‘i, ensuring the success and sustainability of the FIRST Robotics Competition program in the future.”
All teams simultaneously received a challenge earlier this year to design, develop, and build a robot in six weeks using a common parts list.
The robots will compete in randomly selected alliances, and scored on performance of a variety of tasks. Some robots have been programmed for autonomous movement, while others are operated by radio control.
Of the more than 1,500 teams participating nationwide in the 2008 season, BAE Systems is directly supporting 65 teams located near company sites in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
BAE Systems has more than 700 employees in Hawai‘i at a number of locations.
It is the largest private-sector ship repair company in Hawai‘i and supports Department of Defense customers with a variety of mission support services and information technology solutions in Hawai‘i and throughout the Pacific Rim.
