CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
12 January 2005
Company News
Autodesk Underscores Commitment to Next Generation of Engineers with Continued Sponsorship of FIRST Robotics Competition
Autodesk Inc. announced that it will continue its 13-year sponsorship of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, which kicked off January 8, 2005, at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester. Recognizing the importance of training the engineers of tomorrow, Autodesk is increasing its commitment to the organization by donating more than $24 million in software and sponsoring the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship.
The competition, which teams professional engineers with high school students, challenges students to solve an engineering design problem in only six weeks. The 2005 competition is expected to include more than 24,000 students with teams from across the United States, as well as Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Great Britain and Israel. This year's student competitors will receive licenses of Autodesk Design Academy, which includes Autodesk Inventor® Series. Students will also receive 3ds max®, animation and modeling software from Autodesk's Discreet division. In addition to the design software, students will have access to the Autodesk Streamline® collaboration service, enabling them to better manage and share their design information with team members and judges. Students will participate in 30 regional competitions held throughout March, and winning teams will be invited to attend the Championship, which will take place April 21-23, 2005, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
As a major corporate sponsor of the FIRST Robotics Competition for the past 13 years, Autodesk has donated millions of dollars in software to participating students. Autodesk also provides software training and creates a virtual library of parts to simplify the design process and speed the students' development of working robots that meet the engineering design challenge.
Autodesk Inventor Award
The Autodesk Inventor Award will be presented at the Championship event to the team that best understands, documents, and communicates the distinct phases of the design process, from concept to completion, using Autodesk Inventor software.
Autodesk Visualization Award
Also to be presented at the Championship, the Autodesk Visualization Award will recognize excellence in student animation that clearly and creatively illustrates the spirit of the FIRST Robotics Competition. In competing for this award, the student teams will create a 30-second animation about their robot, their team, or the FIRST competition, using Discreet's 3ds max software.
Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. To learn more about FIRST and the FIRST Robotics Competition go to http://www.usfirst.org .
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