Regal Cutting Tools & the FIRST Robotics Competition

For more than 3 years, Regal Cutting Tools has supported Stateline Robotics, the Hononegah High School team that competes in the nation’s FIRST Robotics Competition. That partnership has paid off in the addition of several team members to industrial internships at Regal. Andrew Shike and Colton Shmeltzer are expanding their talents thanks to their experiences with the FIRST Robotics Competition.

FIRST is an acronym for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. The program was founded in 1989 with the goal of aiding youth in fields of engineering and technology. The FIRST organization provides over $20 million in scholarships and sponsors an annual robotics competition for its participants.

The FIRST organization describes their purpose as:
“Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.”

In 2015, the robotics competition theme was “Recycle Rush”. More than 8,000 teams, which included over 75,000 students from grades 9 through 12 competed in building robotic devices from a standard part kit in a 6 week period. Modifications were allowed within a budgeted amount and each team was responsible for design, production, and programming of their device. The “Recycle Rush” tasks included moving totes, putting litter in totes and stacking totes in a limited amount of time.

Andrew Shike was a member of Stateline Robotics for 3 years, first as programmer of the user interface, then programming and design of the electrical system, and finally Team Captain, teaching new members software design for the first time.

“It was certainly a challenge; however, everything came through and that year was the team’s best yet, scoring top seats in both competitions we played.” Andrew remarked. “Regal Cutting Tools has been generous enough to sponsor us for the past several years and enable the team to do everything it does. Robotics has been a valuable experience for me by not only providing true to life experience in an engineering and software development environment, invaluable to my own coding endeavors, but also, through a connection made with a team mentor, providing me with a job here at Regal Cutting Tools, a place I can honestly be happy coming back to each day.”

Regal Cutting Tools is proud to sponsor the Stateline Robotics team, and assisting today’s youth in developing technological skills for the future.

Regal Cutting Tools & the FIRST Robotics Competition

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