NORWICH – The Chenango County FIRST TR-X 145 Robotics Team recently held their 2012 kick-off at the Norwich Senior High School. Through a live feed provided by NASA, originating from Manchester, NH, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 7, the team learned of the new challenge for 2012 along with other teams nationwide.

Inventor Dean Kamen was joined by former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, will.i.am, frontman of The Black Eyed Peas, and a host of other celebrities to launch the 21st FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) season with the Kickoff of Rebound RumbleSM. An estimated 60,000 around the world joined the Kickoff via live NASA-TV broadcast and webcast.

FIRST teams received a kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. Working with Mentors, students have six weeks to design, build, program and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge. Once these young inventors create a robot, their teams participate in competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration and the determination of students.