An FRC team makes some final adjustments on its robot.
As strategic alliance partners of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the International Society of Automation (ISA) and its umbrella organization, the Automation Federation, took part in the FIRST Championship, an annual international celebration of young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.
More than 18,000 students from around the globe, ages 6 to 18, gathered in April at the America’s Center Convention Complex and the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri to put their engineering skills and scientific know-how to the test. This year’s championship event drew more than 900 student teams from 40 countries.
A centerpiece of the four-day event was the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The competition provides students, grades 9 through 12, with the opportunity to use sophisticated software and hardware, learn from professional engineers, collaborate, earn recognition and qualify for millions of dollars in college scholarships. More than 75,000 high school students, comprising more than 3,000 teams, participated in 56 FRC regional competitions.
ISA and the Automation Federation hosted an informational exhibit where student competitors could learn about the automation profession and how to plan for careers in the field. A select group of practicing automation professionals from the St. Louis area---volunteering on behalf of ISA and the Automation Federation—met with FIRST competitors and their family members to answer questions about career opportunities in automation and engineering. The group included Steven Pflantz, CRB Consulting Engineers; Carrie Tietjen and Gregg Dougan, Experitec, Inc.; Cory Kniepp and Michael Unterreiner, Emerson Industrial Automation, ASCO Numatics; Nick Erickson, Mead O’Brien, and Frank McCormack, EPIC Systems, Inc.
For more information, visit: www.isa.org
