Five teenagers from Southern California are causing a stir in the US Global Solutions Pavilion (Hall 1), where they are showing off their award-winning robot technology. The seventeen-year-olds, from Chatsworth High School, are members of a national youth organisation that encourages young people to take an interest in science and technology. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded ten years ago. It organises an annual national competition in which teams of youngsters are given some, but not all, the components they need and challenged to design and build a robot. They have six weeks to complete the task. The Double Deuce team from Chatsworth has been competing since the competition began. Current members of the sixty-strong team have taken part for up to four years. This year they won the FIRST chairman's award - and an invitation to visit the airshow and represent the organisation. With them they've brought a selection of robots. Under the guidance of teacher/sponsor Wendy Wooten the kids are dividing their time between manning their stand and looking around the show. "It's fantastic to get so close to all this hardware," says Robert Chellew, who's from an air force family and plans a military career. "What we see here are the ultimate applications of the technology we work with. It's a brilliant experience." His colleagues aren't set on careers in aerospace - but they say they would like to enter a competition to build a flying robot. "I think we'd do pretty well," says Chellew. Wooten wants the team to see technological applications first hand and understand some of the real-world opportunities available to them. When they're not building robots for competition, purposes they mentor other youngsters and run fundraising activities.
Source: Flight Daily News