College of Engineering and Computing continues support of 2008 FIRST Robotics

	The South Carolina State Board of Education determines the location of the FIRST Robotics regional event each year. The 2008 event was held at Clemson University in Clemson, SC. The 2009 location has yet to be determined. Below is the list of this year's regional participants. For more photos, click on the team robot or click here.
	Robot photo Team #, Location Robot photo Team #, Location 281, Greenville, SC 342, North Charleston, SC 343, Seneca, SC 386, Melbourne, FL 393, Morristown, IN 665, Orlando, FL 804, Rock Hill, SC 845, Pendleton, SC 900, Durham, NC 1026, York, SC 1051, Marion, SC 1102, Aiken, SC 1225, Hendersonville, NC 1249, Delbarton, WV 1251, Coconut Creek, FL 1261, Suwanee, GA 1270, Cleveland, OH 1293, Columbia, SC 1319, Mauldin, SC 1369, Tampa, FL 1398, Columbia, SC 1436, Fort Mill, SC 1466, Knoxville, TN 1539, Clover, SC 1553, Lugoff, SC 1746, Cumming, GA 1758, Florence, SC 1876, Hilton Head Island, SC 1959, Blythewood, SC 2092, Beaufort, SC 2187, Conway, SC 2237, Beckley, WV 2362, Charlotte , NC 2425, Tampa, FL 2430, Greenwood, SC 2483, Fayetteville, NC

Although the FIRST Robotics Palmetto Regional competition was held at Clemson University instead of at the University of South Carolina on March 27-29, 2008, the Carolina College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) continued to have a strong showing in its long-running support of the competition with Dr. Donn Griffith, CEC Outreach, Recruitment, and Retention Director, serving as one of the referees for this year's regional competition. CEC's booth was one of the more popular exhibits visited and the CEC gave away three VEX kits, one per day during the three day event. Additionally, CEC sponsored Team #1398 received the Regional Chairman's Award.

Award winners for the 2008 regional competition were as follows:

• Regional Chairman's Award, Team 1398, Columbia, SC
• Regional Engineering Inspiration Award, Team 1102, Aiken, SC
• Woodie Flowers Award: Clyde Ward
• Outstanding Volunteer Award: Dr. Bob Couch
• Regional Winner #1, Team 2483, Fayetteville, NC
• Regional Winner #2, Team 386, Melbourne, FL
• Regional Winner #3, Team 1758, Florence, SC
• Regional Finalist #1, Team 342, North Charleston, SC
• Regional Finalist #2, Team 343, Seneca, SC
• Regional Finalist #3, Team 393, Morristown, IN
• Regional Finalist #4, Team 804, Rock Hill, SC
• Autodesk Visualization Award, Team 1746, Cumming, GA, USA
• Chrysler Team Spirit Award, Team 386, Melbourne, FL
• Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award, Team 1249, Delbarton, WV
• General Motors Industrial Design Award, Team 1251, Coconut Creek, FL
• Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism, Team 281, Greenville, SC
• Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Entrepreneurship Award, Team 342, North Charleston, SC
• Motorola Quality Award, Team 342, North Charleston, SC
• Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award, Team 665, Orlando, FL
• Xerox Creativity Award, Team 1026, York, SC
• Highest Rookie Seed Award, Team 2430, Greenwood, SC
• Imagery Award, Team 1746, Cumming, GA
• Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award, Team 1319, Mauldin, SC
• Rookie All Star Award, Team 2430, Greenwood, SC
• Rookie Inspiration Award, Team 2362, Charlotte, NC
• Website Award, Team 342, North Charleston, SC
• Judges Award, Team 1319, Mauldin, SC
• Judges Award, 393, Morristown, IN

Additionally, FIRST and CEC have partnered to establish a Dean’s Scholarship to benefit students who have participated on a FIRST team for at least two years during their high school years and who will be attending Carolina. The scholarships, ten in total, will be offered to qualifying students who enroll in any one of the six engineering (biomedical, chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, and mechanical) or three computing (computer engineering, computer information systems, and computer science) disciplines offered at the College.

In continuing to shape the new face of engineering and computing, Dean Michael D. Amiridis says, “Our College maintains an emphasis on high quality education for each student. These scholarships will bring to us students who have shown by their participation on FIRST teams that they are active and excited about the engineering and computing disciplines.”

Dean Amiridis, on behalf of CEC, will award a FIRST scholarship to ten selected high school seniors currently on a FIRST team that have been a member of a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), and/or FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC), and/or FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team at their high school for at least two years. Recipients of the scholarships will receive $1,000 per year for four years for a total of $4,000 at Carolina with the scholarship to be applied directly towards tuition and fees or on-campus room and board costs at USC.

"This is an unprecedented offering the College is giving for FIRST-participating students." said Dr. Donn Griffith, Outreach, Recruitment, Retention Director for Carolina’s College of Engineering and Computing. “Although we have been active participants in the various FIRST competitions for many years – hosting events and competitions, lending expertise, sending volunteers, etc. – this is the first time we’ve been able to offer ten scholarships to students. In fact, we are only one of 90 international companies/schools to offer scholarships and currently the only academic facility in our state to do so. Our support through these scholarships gives us international sponsorship status. Our College continues active support of FIRST through planning and participation in the 2008 FRC Palmetto Regional and a College display exhibit in Scholarship Row during the FIRST Championship in Atlanta on April 17th-19th, 2008."

For more information, contact Donald Griffith, Ed.D., Outreach, Recruitment, Retention Director, University of South Carolina, College of Engineering and Computing, 1A14 Swearingen Engineering Center, Columbia, SC 29208. 803.777.7505 voice, 803.777.3818 fax, donn@engr.sc.edu

For more information about the Palmetto Regional Competition's results, see http://www2.usfirst.org/2008comp/events/SC/awards.html
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3/31/08