The team came home with the Gracious Professionalism Award. It is awarded to the team that best exemplifies FIRST’s core values.
“US FIRST was started by Segway engineer and founder Dean Kamen to encourage and recognize teamwork in science technology, and there are four levels for different age groups from 6-to-20 year-olds,” said Terence Chu, father of team member Justin Chu and a mentor to the team.
Chu is a medical physicist in radiation oncology at Samaritan Cancer Center and has been coaching and mentoring local FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) teams for almost nine years.
“There are no more lonely engineers like Thomas Edison; now, it’s very much a team concept, sharing data and tweeks,” he said. “There’s a social component to technology, and FIRST recognizes that. Members have to think of the team as a company, with some working on design, connecting electronics, or doing programming – some even writing grants and promoting and marketing the team, which has many sponsors.”
Innovators 3138 qualified for the international competition when it won an award at a regional competition at Xavier University in Cincinnati. The team used electronics to develop an iPod application to pinpoint statistics on robotic performance to help make strategy decisions.
“We received our challenge for the world championship eight weeks before the competition, and the students had six weeks to build the robot, design strategy, and test the robot and attachments. Then, it was sealed and shipped to St. Louis for the competition,” he said.
Their challenge was for their robot to climb a pyramid and shoot discs into their open area goals. Members, coach Mark Adkins and mentors spent six days a week in their Tipp City clubhouse working on their robot.
“Of 2,500 teams around the world, only 400 go to the world championship, so it’s a big deal for the children,“ said Chu.
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