Released April 1, 2008

CLEMSON, S.C. — One thousand students and 36 robots invaded Littlejohn Coliseum last weekend and now science and math are cooler than ever.

A student works with a robot.Clemson University welcomed the fifth annual FIRST Robotics Competition Palmetto Regional March 28-29. Thirty-six teams representing eight states (South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia) participated.

Regional winners of the competition included the alliance (three teams) of Melbourne High School, Satellite High School, West Shore junior and senior high schools and home schools of Melbourne, Fla. (team 386); Westover High School of Fayetteville, N.C. (team 2483); and Florence Darlington Technical College and Florence School District 1 of Florence, S.C. (team 1758). These three teams now have the opportunity to compete in the international championship competition April 17-19 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. More than 32,000 high school students are expected to participate on 1,500 teams from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands and England.

The Seneca, S.C., team (team 343) comprised of students from F.P. Hamilton Career Center, Seneca High School, Walhalla High School, West-Oak High School and Tamassee-Salem High school, along with Mauldin High School of Mauldin, S.C., (team 1319) also earned bids to the international competition due to previous wins at the Peachtree Regionals in Atlanta March 14-15.

In the Palmetto Regional competition, the winner of the Regional Chairman’s Award was Keenan High School in Columbia, S.C. (team 1398). The Regional Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious award offered in the regional competition, and the Keenan team has been extended a bid to the international competition.

Some of the other award winners included Aiken County Public Schools (team 1102) from Aiken, S.C., which took the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. The team from Christ Church Episcopal, J.L. Mann and Southside High Schools (team 281) from Greenville, S.C., won the Johnson and Johnson Gracious Professionalism Award. Team 2430 from Greenwood, S.C., won the Highest Rookie Seed Award and the Rookie All Star Award.

For a complete list of all the awards from the Palmetto Regional go to: http://www2.usfirst.org/2008comp/events/SC/awards.html.

The robotics competition.In this year's game, student robots were designed to race around a track knocking down 40-inch inflated trackballs and moving them around the track, passing them either over or under a six-foot six-inch overpass. Each match lasted two minutes and 15 seconds. Teams were judged not only on point accumulation, but also on design, team spirit, professionalism and perseverance.

This was the first time Clemson hosted the robotics competition. Clemson is a nationally recognized research university where approximately 5,500 students are enrolled in engineering and science undergraduate and graduate courses. There are 350 faculty in the College of Engineering and Science. Connect to http://www.ces.clemson.edu/ for more information.

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http://www.clemson.edu/newsroom/articles/2008/april/roboticswinners.php5

Contacts: Frank Lanford, (864) 985-2329, flanford@bellsouth.net

Susan Polowczuk, (864) 656-2063, spolowc@clemson.edu