FIRST robotics team visit Altium HQ

In July of this year Altium’s Sydney headquarters were treated to an entertaining robotics demonstration coordinated by members of Australia’s award winning FIRST robotics team.

Aptly titled “The Thunder Down Under” (www.thethunderdownunder.org/) , the FIRST team is made up of high school students from the local Sydney area, who have recently competed in the annual FRC (First Robotics Competition)event held in the United States. Each year participants in the FRC are given a specific robotic design task. Appropriately for this World Cup year, the teams had just six brief weeks to design and build a soccer playing robot using a standard kit of parts, and a common set of rules. The purpose of the competition is to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of science and technology within young people.

Although Altium had been sponsoring the FIRST competition for some years, 2010 was the first year an Australian team has competed. As a result Altium expanded its sponsorship to specifically support “The Thunder Down Under” team, as well as offering a 12-month Altium Designer license to all 1,800 FRC teams around the world. “The Thunder Down Under” team made the most of their FRC debut, winning the Rookie All-Star Award and the Industrial Safety award.

Team representatives Sarah Heimlich 16, and Tim  Williamson, 14 impressed Altium staff with their extensive robotics and electronics knowledge as they shared their experiences at the competition and the technical aspects of their roles. FIRST mentor Mike Heimlich presented Altium’s Senior Vice President of Global Customer Success, Matthew Schwaiger, with a duplicate of the team’s FRC award to acknowledge Altium’s support of, and partnership with “The Thunder Down Under” team.

The team then put “Wombot”, the soccer playing robot, through its paces, to the delight of Altium staff.

“The Thunder Down Under” will be back in the USA next year, hoping to use the experience gained this year to put them in contention for the big prize. Altium is proud to provide ongoing support and mentoring to the team in its continuing sponsorship of the FRC.

For more information on Altium's sponsorship of the FRC, have a read of the press release.

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