Parsippany Hills High Hosts FIRST Tech Challenge

High school students took a test drive in a galaxy far, far away during the 2011 FIRST Tech Challenge robotics competition at Parsippany Hills High last Friday. The event, for young people looking to develop their science and engineering skills, featured 13 10-member teams from area schools.

Among the teams in attendance was Parsippany's own robotics club, the NanoGurus. The home team competed in last year's FIRST LEGO League, making this its next step in the competition series.

For this year's event, the Parsippany crew created a game called  Bowled Over. The game setup includes a 12'x12' diamond-shaped ring equipped with 12 stackable crates, 100 racquetballs and two bowling balls. The object of the game is to rack up as many points as possible by having a robot perform various tasks. Players get points for parking a bowling ball inside a "home zone," by knocking crates down with racquetballs and by picking up balls and putting them into crates. Some performed better than others, as is to be expected, but on this Friday, everyone went home a winner.

Enjoy these images from the exciting FIRST Tech Challenge robotics competition.