SOLIDWORKS to Sponsor The FIRST Tech Challenge

Rich Hinten, head coach of a USFirst Robotics Team (high school aged students) based out of Troy, Ohio was looking to teach his students a different program this year to compete at The FIRST Tech Challenge. In previous years Rich has used Creo, but this year he chose another route: SolidWorks. He mentioned he would rather use SOLIDWORKS to share with his students because that’s what he’s using at work and it would be much easier to teach.

Rich contacted Christian Blanc, a FIRST Robotics Alumnus, and current Territory Manager for SOLIDWORKS Education. With the help of Christian, Rich and his students were able to receive a SOLIDWORKS sponsorship. Rich’s son immediately began watching videos on SOLIDWORKS Website and commented, “WOW that looks so much better than what we tried last year.” Rich and his students look primed to take gold this year with the use of SolidWorks.

What’s The FIRST Tech Challenge?

FTC is designed for those who want to compete head to head, using a sports model. Teams of up to 10 students are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. The robot kit is reusable from year-to-year and is programmed using a variety of languages. Teams, including coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles. Awards are given for the competition as for well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments.

Students get to:

• Design, build, and program robots
• Apply real-world math and science concepts
• Develop problem-solving, organizational, and team-building skills
• Compete and cooperate in alliances and tournaments
• Earn a place in the World Championship
• Qualify for over $11 million in college scholarships

More information on the FIRST Tech Challenge can be found here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc