Adaptive Methods Sponsors New Robotics Team

Thursday, 07 January 2010 00:00

The Centreville High School’s newly established Robotics Team has reached a milestone in its ability to compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology organization) robotics competition.  Centreville based Adaptive Methods; a developer of advanced sensor systems and sensor processing and computing architecture products for surveillance, security and military combat systems is a founding sponsor for Centreville High School’s FIRST robotics team.

Mr. Barclay Roman, Vice President and Director of Research and Development, and Mr. Keith Walters, a Software Engineer at Adaptive Methods, joined the robotics team on October 29 to formally present the team with a donation that will help get their robot into the first phases of production. Roman remarked, “Adaptive Methods is pleased to collaborate with Centreville High School to provide this opportunity for students to explore technology in such a fun and fascinating way and exposing them to many facets of a design and development project.”  

Mr. Walters (team mentor) along with the team’s faculty sponsors, Edie Rutz and Oliver Small, are the energy behind the establishment of this program at Centreville.  The first year team has so far exceeded all expectations with 28 students meeting every week to learn about FIRST and start planning for the competition.  FIRST was founded by inventor Dean Kamen whose mission is to inspire young people to pursue higher education and careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Every January FIRST announces the game objectives (which change from year to year) and then teams from all over the country have six weeks to design and build a robot that will compete at a regional event.

The Centreville team will be competing in the FIRST Capitol Regional from March 4 - 6, 2010. The event will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. and will be open to the public.