For the second year in a row, employees from Bastian Robotics manned the safety glasses station to ensure all participants were safe during competition.
April 30, 2013 (St. Louis, MO) – More than 600 teams from around the world gathered at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis last week for the 2013 FIRST Championship, an event that brings together finalists from three separate robotics competitions including the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship, and the FIRST LEGO League World Festival.
While students worked on their robots and cheered for their favorite teams, volunteers from Bastian Robotics ensured everyone inside the pit area had safety glasses and wore them at all times.
"We had a great time volunteering last year,” said Ben Viorel, manufacturing manager at Bastian Robotics. “It was wonderful to see so many students excited about science and engineering, so it was an easy decision to help out again this year.”
Two shifts of volunteers from Bastian Robotics worked from 6:00 am until 5:00 pm on Thursday. During the first shift, volunteers handed out safety glasses at both entrances to the pits, and during the second shift, volunteers distributed safety glasses at one entrance. Throughout the day, volunteers were also inside the pit to ensure safety glasses were being worn and collecting and cleaning any returned sets.
In addition to promoting safety, Bastian Robotics also supported team LamBot 3478 from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, by providing the team space in the company’s fabrication shop to repair their robot and also provided support to the team in their pit during competition.
"We opened an office in San Luis Potosi last year, so we were excited to get involved with the local community” said Ken Tinnell, general manager at Bastian Robotics. “Supporting a FIRST Robotics team seemed like a great way for us to give back.”
Team LamBot did an excellent job at the 2013 FIRST Championship and was awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award, celebrating the team’s success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within their school and community.
For more information about the 2013 FIRST Championship, visit: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/first-championship
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For media information, please contact Tom Ahlborn, Marketing Specialist, at 314-432-2224 or by email at tahlborn@bastiansolutions.
About Bastian Robotics
Bastian Robotics, headquartered in Maryland Heights, MO., is a privately-owned company specializing in robotic integration, custom end of arm tooling, and robotic consultation. The company has clients across the U.S. and Mexico in a variety of industries, including automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and healthcare, and consumer packaging. Bastian Robotics is part of the Bastian Solutions family of companies, which also includes Bastian Software Solutions and Bastian Automation Engineering. For more information on the company, please visit http://www.bastiansolutions.com/robotics.
About FIRST
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. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from three out of every five Fortune 500 companies and nearly $15 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST®Robotics Competition (FRC® ) and FIRST®Tech Challenge (FTC® ) for high-school students, FIRST®LEGO® League (FLL® ) for 9 to 14-year-olds, (9 to 16-year-olds outside the U.S. and Canada) and Junior FIRST®LEGO® League (Jr.FLL®) for 6 to 9-year-olds. Gracious Professionalism™ is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.