SOUTH PORTLAND, ME – South Portland High School’s FIRST Robotics Team, The Riot Crew, won first place at the BAE Granite State Regional match, and now aims to take the title at the championship in St. Louis April 26-28.
The FIRST Robotics Competition partners professionals with high school students to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. In 2012, over 50,000 students are involved on over 2,300 teams from 11 countries to compete in 59 regional competitions across 3 countries. The competitions play out like high-tech spectator sporting event, building the students’ skills in problem solving, brainstorming, teamwork and project-focused work.
Six Maine teams competed at the 3 day BAE Granite State Regional (GSR) competition. The Riot Crew displayed their highly-effective robot during the qualifying rounds to earn a spot in the Final rounds. As part of a 3 team alliance the Riot Crew prevailed over 7 other alliances, which included 3 other Maine teams, to win the 2012 Granite State Regional!
The next challenge for The Riot Crew is raising funds for their trip to St. Louis to compete in the FIRST FRC Championship. An estimated $35,000 is the goal to be raised for the travel and competition. Along with Fairchild Semiconductor, who has generously sponsored the team all year, other local businesses have been showing their support bringing the team to over 60% of the way there!
With only three weeks left to raise funds the Riot Crew will be at the Maine Mall, Garden Court THIS Saturday, April 7th from 10:00 – 7:00 pm showing off their robots! Come try it out for yourself! Here’s the opportunity to be at the controls of a FIRST Robotics Team 58 robot! Meet some of the amazing team, drive their robots, have your picture taken with Jethro and catch the buzz! Don’t miss out on the free raffle for Portland Pirates tickets. We hope to see you there!
To sponsor The Riot Crew as an individual or organization, please contact Shay Bellas at 207.632.8471. For more information about the team visit us at www.riotcrew.org.