The NY Tech Valley FIRST Robotics Regional was hosted by RPI on March 7-9, 2019. This is the 6th year of this high school roboticscompetition. 36 teams from NY and NJ plus 4 international times from Brazil and Canada competed over the for 3 days event. Winners of awards in categories that recognize outstanding performance for both on the field and off the field work received invites to the world championships.
Many departments from across the Rensselaer campus work to make sure that this is an amazing experience for the students, that includes efforts from ECSE such as Professor Paul Schoch serving as Co-Chair of the planning committee. The event major sponsors include RPI, GlobalFoundries, GE, National Grid, ASML, KLA, Applied Materials Foundation, Lam Research and AMD.
ECSE Faculty Professor Paul Schoch, Director of the Center for Innovation in Pre-College Education (CIPCE), said “Rensselaer values STEM education and inspiration in STEM. That is what we’re celebrating with this competition.”
https://techvalleyfirst.org/doc/March_6_2019_Media_Advisory.pdf
https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/building-robots-in-troy
https://www.news10.com/news/local-news/battling-cargo-loading-robots-take-over-rpi/1836211405
https://wnyt.com/stem/robotics-competition-for-high-schoolers-held-at-rpi/5272939/