Raytheon Puts Math 'FIRST' With Sponsorship of FIRST Robotics Championship
Posted on: Friday, 17 April 2009, 07:00 CDT
Nearly 150 Raytheon-sponsored students competing in national event
In
The FIRST Robotics Championship is an international event in which teams of high school students build a robot during a six-week period using the core principles of engineering and mathematics. The final teams -- 8,600 students from 11 countries -- have been selected from more than 42,000 contestants who already competed at regional levels around the world.
In preparation for the championship, almost 70 Raytheon employees have dedicated approximately 14,000 hours to mentor students from more than 40 high schools across the country during the last year. The Raytheon volunteers have met with their teams each week and have guided them in the development of their robots, each consisting of a standard kit of 604 components and other purchased parts based on a common set of rules provided by FIRST.
"As a former FIRST Robotics student, I can attest to FIRST's ability to get kids excited about math. My experience with FIRST is what made me decide to be an engineer, and I'm proud that Raytheon is committed to supporting the program," said
For more than 11 years, Raytheon engineers have mentored teams of high school students for FIRST Robotics. This past year, Raytheon supported nearly 700 students who competed at FIRST regional competitions, including those that comprise the seven teams heading to the
"Raytheon is committed to inspiring students to do better in math in school and go on to pursue math- and engineering-related careers -- something that fewer students have an interest in, but something the U.S. cannot do without to stay innovative and globally competitive," said
Raytheon's support of FIRST is a component of its MathMovesU program, an initiative designed to engage middle school students in math and science and help create the next generation of innovators for the U.S. Since the program was launched in 2005, MathMovesU has awarded more than
Raytheon Company, with 2008 sales of
SOURCE Raytheon Company
Source: PR Newswire
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