Atholton Robotics Team Advances to FIRST World Championship

COLUMBIA, Md. - April 21, 2017 - PRLog -- Atholton High School's FIRST Robotics Team #2537, known as the Space RAIDers, is the largest robotics team in Howard County with nearly 80 students and 40 mentors/volunteers. Now in their 10^th year, Atholton has qualified to compete at the World Championships and is the only Howard County Public School System team to advance to this level.

"Robotics: The Only High School Sport Where Every Kid Can Go Pro." The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is by far the largest international high-school robotics competition and is described as "the ultimate Sport for the Mind." Each year, FRC announces a complex challenge and then teams from around the world have 6 weeks to build a 120lb robot to meet the challenge. The robots compete at local and regional events and those that qualify can attend the World Competition in St. Louis where 30,000 students from the top teams meet for their robots to do battle.

"Our team is student-led with mentors providing training and serving as subject matter experts. In addition to software, electrical, and mechanical engineering, this program teaches the teamwork and leadership skills that are critical for our next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs," said David Albert, Lead Mentor.

In March, the team won the Chairman's Award at the Central Maryland District Event. "The Chairman's award is the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics and is given to teams who serve as role models in the community for STEM outreach and best represent the FIRST values," said Debbie Breeden, President, Atholton Technology Boosters. "Our students are proud of this achievement and grateful for the support of sponsors, parents, mentors, teachers, and school administrators.

The team's participation in the World Championships is graciously being sponsored by: DoD STEM, SPAWAR, and Iron Mountain.

Team #2537 Annual Sponsors include: Booz Allen Hamilton, Bright Minds, DoD STEM, FEI Systems, Hackground, Howard County Public School System, Iron Mountain, Leidos, Maryland Space Business Roundtable, Tenetics, National Security Agency, PTR Group, Synergist Computing, Tiresias Technologies, W.R. Grace.

You can watch the team's progress in St. Louis via live streaming (https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires_tesla).

About SpaceRAIDers, FIRST Team #2537

Team #2537 is actively seeking sponsors to make tax deductible donations.

Visit the SpaceRAIDer's website (https://team2537.com/) to donate via PayPal.

Follow the SpaceRAIDers on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/team2537/) and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SxqfsV4Vbg).