FIRST Tech Challenge Comes to Richmond, VA, Supported by ECPI University
On Saturday, February 24th 2018, ECPI University was the title sponsor of the 2018 FIRST Tech Challenge Virginia State Championship hosted at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, VA. “The FIRST Tech Challenge represents middle and high school student teams who design, build, and program robots to meet a complex engineering challenge, then compete head-to-head against other teams in a high-tech sporting event.
"With the guidance of adult coaches and mentors, teams build their robots and develop a playing strategy, which includes forming alliances with other teams. Teams earn awards for robot design, creativity, documentation, community outreach, gracious professionalism and competition on the field”.
From September to February teams from Virginia have been competing in qualifying matches throughout the region’s leading up to last Saturday’s event where the top 52 teams from all over the state gathered to compete in this year’s challenge, FIRST Relic Recovery.
ECPI University's Support Took Many Forms
ECPI University’s Innsbrook campus played a big role in this year’s event, which kicked off in September. In conjunction with the Manassas campus, ECPI sponsored FIRST’s first ever, virtual workshop where the teams learned about this year’s challenge theme. During Saturday’s event, faculty and staff from the Innsbrook campus were at St. Christopher’s participating on all levels:
- EET Program Director, Khalid Taha, and Instructor, Negar Ghochaghi, served as judge’s throughout the event and interviewed and evaluated the teams as they competed
- Faculty and Staff Members, Deelynn Leigh, Sarah Baber-Patel and Abdul Abdalla, were Dean’s List Reviewers and sat on committee to review the 22 finalists who were selected for the Dean’s List. They read student essays and interview notes to select the top four who were presented with the award and will go on to complete at the World Competition in Detroit in April.
- Other faculty and staff members were on site to give information out to students and parents in addition to giving live 3D printing demos throughout the competition
- Campus President, Jacob Pope, gave the opening remarks that kicked off the event
- Students from the EET and Software Development team volunteered on the field as referees, practice field assistants, and queuers
Are you fascinated by robotic technology? Want to learn more about technology in a formal educational setting? For more information about ECPI University and the technology degrees we offer, connect with a friendly admissions representative today.
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