>May. 5, 2011
Garrett County’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 1629, which is made up of students from both Northern and Southern high schools, landed an international award last weekend at St. Louis, Mo., where the team competed in the 2011 FIRST World Championships.
Team 1629, nicknamed “GaCo” – short for Garrett Coalition – was presented with the 2011 Championships Engineering Inspiration (EI) Award, recognizing “outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school and community.”
This is the second most prestigious award a team can receive from FIRST at the World Championship. Team 1629 was up against more than 350 teams from the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Asia in competition for this honor.
The local teenagers competed in the Archimedes Division at the event, and achieved a 7-3 record. Their robot’s performance earned the team the 19th rank out of 88 teams in their division.
Before achieving the opportunity to take part in the St. Louis event, the team competed in the Pittsburgh and Buckeye Regional events. The Pittsburgh Regional was the first competition of the year, where Team 1629 garnered a 5-8 record and lost in the quarter finals round of the competition. At that event, the team won the Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award, which recognized an innovative control system or application of control components to provide unique machine functions.
At the Buckeye Regional held in Cleveland, Ohio, the team had a 6-3 record and then lost in the semi-finals. At this contest, Team 1629 received the Xerox Creativity Award and the Regional’s Engineering Inspiration (EI) Award. The regional EI award qualified the team to compete in the St. Louis world championships.
There were four other Garrett County teams at the world event, and all fared well. FIRST Tech Challenge Teams Techno Clovers, G-Force, and FIRST Lego League (FLL) were all in comptition, with Clovers and G-Force achieving finalist positions in their divisions for being finalists in their division, and Team NeXT GEN which received the third place Strategy and Innovation Award. A report about these teams will be published in next week’s issue.
Read the full article here.
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Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues! 
