April 2, 2009 - Shaker High School's robotics team has been invited to compete against 400 other teams from around the world at the FIRST International Robotics Championship in Atlanta later this month.

The team received the invitation last month, when it was named the Rookie All-Star Team after a stellar performance at the Finger Lakes regional competition in Rochester. The team is now busy trying to raise the money to get to the competition, which will be held at the Georgia Dome, April 16-18.

This was the first year Shaker High School fielded a team in the robotics competition. Construction of the team's robot, Bison 1, began in January. During the six week build season prior to the competition, team members worked on Bison 1 relentlessly; they stayed after school every day, they worked on Saturdays until late at night and even worked during the February break. Parents helped out by bringing meals to the team and helping to raise money for the team's travel expenses.

At the Finger Lakes regional competition, the team finished 37th out of 49 teams. However, the team was named the Rookie All-Star Team because of its community service efforts, which included mentoring a Lego League team and three junior Lego League teams, collecting food for a local food bank and establishing community partnerships with local colleges and businesses.

Team members are: Randy Jiang, Alex Bush, Frankie Conroy, Jack Sneeringer, Jack Ruckert, Yun Choi, Chris Peng, Chris Budrow, Mesh Hajela, Elizabeth Brickman, Alyi Balmer, Dan Egan, Julie Millet, Alex Christian, Jiang Qian, Dan Pu, Blake Courtright.

Coaches are: Brian Ashline, technology instructor, and Thomas Heller, chemistry instructor, and Garry Bottini, technology instructor.

FIRST Robotics Competition is a unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help high-school-aged young people discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and researchers can be. The competition challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard "kit of parts" and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in competitions designed by a committee of engineers and other professionals.

Teams are rewarded for excellence in design, demonstrated team spirit, gracious professionalism and maturity, and the ability to overcome obstacles. Scoring the most points is a secondary goal. Winning means building partnerships that last.