NORWICH – The Chenango County FIRST TR-X 145 Robotics Team recently held their 2010 kick-off at the Norwich Senior High School. Through a live feed provided by NASA, originating from Manchester, NH, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9, the team learned of the new challenge for 2010 along with other teams nationwide.

The FIRST Robotics competition challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a problem in a six-week time frame and build a robot using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. In past years, the team has built remote controlled robots that have “played” a variety of different games. This year, the robot challenge is called “Breakaway.” The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponent by shooting soccer balls into a goal, climbing on the alliance (partner team) tower or platform, or by lifting an alliance robot off the playing surface. The game lasts two minutes and fifteen seconds.

On Nov. 23, 2009, the President announced the “Educate to Innovate” initiative, a nationwide campaign to get students excited about pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. President Obama believes that reaffirming and strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation is essential to meeting the challenges of this century.