Local High School wins Robotics Tournament

A local high school robotics team wins two highest awards at a District Competition Event. ILITE Robotics Team 1885, from Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Virginia, competed at FIRST® Chesapeake District Robotics Qualifying Event in Alexandria, Va. ILITE stands for Inspiring Leaders in Technology and Engineering. Thirty-Eight teams from Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania competed this past weekend at a tournament spanning two days with teams playing matches to qualify to compete at the District Championship Games held in University of Maryland (March 28-31, 2018) and ultimately to make it to compete at World Championship games in Detroit, MI (April 25-28, 2018). ILITE had a fantastic weekend bringing home a double win! One is for winning the tournament and another for winning the Chairman’s Award. Chairman’s Award is presented to the team judged to have the most significant, measurable impact of its partnership among its participants and community over a sustained period. The winner is able to demonstrate progress towards FIRST®’s mission of transforming our culture. This weekend’s award is their 9th Chairman’s Award since 2012, not including being a finalist at the World Championship games held in St. Louis, MO. in 2017!

FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest in science and technology. Each year the game theme changes and the students have exactly six weeks to build a robot from scratch, and this year’s game theme is FIRST® POWER UP. Robots can be as tall as six feet tall and cannot exceed 120 lbs. and they play on a field almost as large as a basketball court. POWER UP is an 8-bit style game with two alliances of video game characters and their human operators trapped in an arcade game, and each alliance work to defeat the boss in order to escape! It combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. These games are ultimate Sport for the Mind!

Established in 2005 with thirty-two students, ILITE is today one of the largest robotics programs in the Mid-Atlantic region. ILITE based in Prince William County, Virginia is coached by Professor Gail Drake. Since winning Rookie All Star in 2006 at the FIRST® Championship, ILITE has also won other numerous awards including Engineering Inspiration Awards, Woodie Flowers Finalist, Industrial Design and Entrepreneurship awards. ILITE engages in extensive outreach to share their love of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by holding STEM summer camps, hosting an annual STEAM Expo, advocating for STEM education with national politicians and supporting robotics education at local elementary schools as well as schools in Haiti, Malaysia, Ethiopia, Bolivia, and Liberia. To learn more about ILITE, go to http://www.ilite.us