Martin Engineering supports engineers of the future

Martin Engineering is to co-sponsor two teams of high school students in the FIRST Robotics Competition, which encourages young people to take an interest in science and technology by developing and building highly-functional robots. Martin will support two teams from Illinois: the Kewanee High School team and Team Icaraus from Notra Dame High School and Quest Charter Academy in Peoria.

FIRST was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, as a way of inspiring young people to pursue education and career opportunities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The FIRST Robotics Competition began in 1992 with 28 teams in a New Hampshire high school gym. Since then, the programme has grown to include nearly 500,000 people worldwide in over 32,000 teams. The teams compete at 54 regional events, culminating in the annual championship.

“The competitions are specifically set up to encourage teamwork and interaction between people and groups with different strengths,” said Team Icarus member John Nogaj. “Every team’s objective is the same: engineering and building a robot to perform specific tasks for each competition. We get just six weeks to complete our designs, which must be built from a common kit of parts supplied by FIRST.”

Martin Engineering joins Dust Control Technology, John Deere and Advanced Technology Services in supporting the Illinois teams.

Written by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/13102014/world-coal-martin-engineering-supports-engineers-of-the-future-in-first-robotics-competitions-1406/