Local organizers will learn later this summer whether Columbus will be given a second chance to host the county’s first-ever district high school robotics competition.
Bartholomew County and Columbus had been set to host the competition in March, but the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While there won’t be any robot-to-robot matchup this year, organizers and students will be engaged in off-season activities to prepare themselves for next year’s event.
Local organizers should know by early August whether Columbus will be given a second chance to host a Indiana district event in the global FIRST Robotics Competition. That’s according to Cummins Inc. engineer Sam Geckler, a mentor of the Columbus-based GalacTech robotics team, also known as Team 4926.
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“We don’t know for certain, but we think we’ll be given preferential treatment in site-selection because we didn’t get to host this year,” Geckler said. “If we are chosen, we would propose that our event be held the second weekend of spring break.”
Local organizers want that competition tentatively planned for March 12-13 in the Columbus North High School gymnasium, he said.
It had taken about two years of preparation before Columbus was chosen as a district site for the FIRST competition, Bartholomew Consolidated School superintendent Jim Roberts said. FIRST is an acronym that describes the purpose of the organization: “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”
Prior to the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, the event was expected to attract 2,200 visitors, as well as bring in $444,972 to the city’s economy, according to estimates provided by Columbus Visitors Center executive director Karen Niverson.
The 2021 competition will essentially be a “replay” of the same game originally scheduled this year called “Infinite Recharge,” Geckler said.
One significant reason not to change games is that more than half of the 4,000 FIRST teams located around the world didn’t get to compete at all with their robots specifically built for this year’s game, Geckler said.
“It costs a lot of money to build these robots,” Geckler said. “But with COVID and the economic conditions happening now, a lot of teams are going to see a decrease in available finances.”
For that reason, event organizers will attempt to make upcoming competitions as cost-effective as possible, he said.
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Founded in 1992 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, FIRST operates as a non-profit public charity corporation. It licenses qualified teams, usually affiliated with schools or other youth organizations, to participate in its competitions.
While the teams pay a fee to the charity, most of that money is redistributed to pay for robotic parts and other services.
Since its inception 28 years ago, FIRST has now grown to 3,898 teams in 33 Indiana counties.
To learn more about the program in our area, go online to firstindianarobotics.org
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