Archive: Around Town

Ithaca High School's FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Team 639 Code Red Robotics concluded their six-week build season at midnight on February 17.  Since January 3, the 75 Code Red Robotics high school students have worked from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays with approximately 20 local technological experts who act as mentors to build a 120-lb robot to play a game that FIRST provides them with each year.  

On the first Saturday of January, FIRST released a video animation describing a game that each of the 3,000 FIRST robotics teams will build a robot to play during the following build season.  This year's game, "Recycle Rush", involves stacking recycling totes and bins, and placing pool noodles (representing "litter") on top.

This year's game is unique in many ways, one of which is the fact that it is purely offensive.  For the first time in many years, each alliance (composed of three robotics teams) is on a separate side of the field, working together with their alliance members independent of the actions of the opposite alliance.   Another unique factor of this year's game is that robots don't increase their ranking by simply winning matches, but by summing the points their alliance wins in every match that they play.  "This year marks a season of change in the FIRST game, a new challenge that each of the 3,000 FRC teams have taken upon with renewed enthusiasm." says Public Relations Officer, Katie Henderson.

At midnight, the robot was placed in a bag and sealed up until the team travels to regional competitions, which will be occurring in late March.  The team will be attending the Tech Valley Regional Competition in Troy, NY, and the Buckeye Regional Competition in Cleveland, OH (March 20-22 and March 27-29, respectively).  If Code Red is on the winning alliance at one of these competitions, they will be eligible to travel to the 2015 FIRST Championships event in St. Louis, MO from April 22 - 25, a feat they have accomplished for the past three years.

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