Robot rumble: Inside Houston's international robotics competition
From Armenia to Australia, more than 15,000 students representing 17 countries are participating in the competition, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. They design, code and build complex robots from scratch to compete in intense challenges.
'We have to travel a long way to get here, which means we have to pack our robot all up in, like, a crate and send it multiple weeks before the actual competition,' said Ashley Nestlerode, driver for Australia's Thunder Down Under robotics team.
Smartphones may boost kids' mental health: Study
Major companies such as NASA and Boeing also attend, scouting for the next generation of engineers.
The competition kicked off Thursday morning and will run through the weekend.
'The technology that's used in building the robots is just so far beyond what it was,' said Collin Fultz, senior director of FIRST Championship, reflecting on how far the event has come since he competed more than 20 years ago.
This year's challenge involves cleaning imaginary algae, represented by dodgeballs, scoring them into nets, and placing PVC pipe 'coral' on a simulated reef.
'A Castle of your own': White Castle selling new bounce house
'It'll be three on the blue alliance against three robots on the red alliance,' Fultz explained. 'At the end of the match, they climb and get their 150-pound robots hanging from this cage.'
When teams aren't competing, they're in the pits, tweaking and perfecting their robots for the next round.
For many students, the experience is about more than just competition.
'Having that robotics initiative and bringing the mission of FIRST to the reservation is why we're on the Hall of Fame team right now,' said Elena Klopfenstein, of Coconino High School's CocoNuts Robotics team in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Last year, the CocoNuts were inducted into the FIRST Hall of Fame after receiving the program's highest honor, the FIRST World Championship Impact Award.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNET
3 minutes ago
- CNET
Look to the Sky: Bright Fireballs Appear During the Perseids Meteor Shower
Skygazers rejoice, the summer isn't finished with delivering meteor showers to feast your eyes on. Last week saw dueling meteor showers taking over the sky, but the most popular meteor shower of the year won't hit its peak until next week. The Perseids meteor shower is about to give you a real light show, provided you're far enough away from light pollution to see it. Perseids are known for their bright fireballs and plentiful meteors. The show started on July 17, and will run through Aug. 23. The reason the Perseids meteor shower is so popular is twofold. First, it takes place in the summer, so going outside and watching it is less uncomfortable than other large meteor showers like Quadrantids, which takes place in wintery January. The other reason is that it's one of the most active meteor showers of the year. During its peak, the meteor shower is known to rain down as many as 100 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society. These not only include your typical shooting stars, but also a higher chance for fireballs, which are meteors that explode as they enter orbit. Per NASA, fireballs tend to last longer than standard shooting stars and can come in a variety of different colors. Perseids come to Earth courtesy of the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet. Earth's orbit around the sun brings it through Swift-Tuttle's tail every year. The comet itself takes 133 years to orbit the sun. Its last perihelion -- the point at which it's the closest to the sun -- was in 1992. It won't be back until the year 2125. Until then, it leaves behind an excellent tail of dust and debris to feed us yearly meteor showers. How to catch the Perseids meteor shower The best time to view the Perseids is during its peak, which occurs on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. During this time, the shower will produce anywhere from 25 to 100 meteors per hour on average. However, since the shower officially lasts for over a month, you have a chance to see a shooting star on any given evening, provided that you're far enough away from light pollution. Thus, if you're planning on watching this year's Perseids during their peak, you'll want to get out of the city and suburbs as far as possible. According to Bill Cooke, lead of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office, folks in the city might see one or two meteors from the meteor shower per hour, which is pocket change compared to what those outside city limits might see. Regardless, once you've arrived at wherever you want to watch the meteors, you'll want to direct your attention to the radiant, or the point at which the meteors will appear to originate. Like all meteors, Perseids are named after the constellation from which they appear. In this case, it's Perseus. Per Stellarium's free sky map, Perseus will rise from the northeastern horizon across the continental US on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. It'll then rise into the eastern sky, where it'll remain until after sunrise. So, in short, point yourself due east and you should be OK. Binoculars may help, but we recommend against telescopes since they'll restrict your view of the sky to a very small portion, which may hinder your meteor-sighting efforts. The American Meteor Society also notes that the moon may give viewers some difficulty. Perseids' peak occurs just three days after August's full moon, so the moon will still be mostly full. Thus, it is highly probable that light pollution from the moon may reduce the number of visible meteors by a hefty margin, depending on how things go.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
4 Astronauts Launch to Space Station Aboard Elon Musk's SpaceX Rocket
The launch marks SpaceX's 11th astronaut mission to the ISS since November 2020NEED TO KNOW SpaceX's latest mission to the International Space Station launched successfully on Thursday The Crew-11 team includes two NASA astronauts, one member of JAXA and one cosmonaut They will relieve the Crew-10 aboard the ISS and stay for approximately six monthsSpaceX's latest mission to the International Space Station launched successfully this week. The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off shortly before noon local time on Friday, Aug. 1, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, taking four team members into orbit. Their six-month stay will mark SpaceX's 11th operational astronaut mission to the ISS under its contract with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, almost five years after its Crew-1 mission in November 2020. The plan is for the Crew-11 capsule, named Endeavour, to dock with the ISS on Saturday, Aug. 2, and relieve the four Crew-10 members who arrived in March. Crew-11 includes two NASA astronauts, mission commander Zena Cardman and pilot Mike Fincke, as well as two mission specialists, Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. Elon Musk's space technology company posted live updates from the launch on X, writing, "All systems are looking good and weather is 90% favorable" a few hours prior to launch. The Falcon 9 rocket is a different SpaceX craft than those involved with the company's recent failed launches. Four unmanned test flights for the company's Starship program — Musk's latest step toward his goal of sending humans to Mars by 2026 — have exploded during testing in 2025. In March, Starship's eighth flight test exploded at Starbase, SpaceX's launch site in southern Texas, which led planes to be grounded at several airports. On May 27, the ninth test lifted off at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. While the vehicle successfully reached the Earth's orbit, an apparent propellant leak caused a loss of altitude. According to ABC News, the spacecraft began spinning and mission control could no longer control it. Debris from the rocket fell into the Indian Ocean, per The New York Times. Then, in June, a Starship rocket exploded into flames during testing at Starbase, sending a massive fireball into the sky. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. SpaceX released a statement following the explosion, saying, "On Wednesday, June 18 at approximately 11 p.m. CT, the Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase. A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation and all personnel are safe and accounted for." CEO Elon Musk kept his response to the explosion much simpler, replying to a post on X that showed photos of the aftermath with the snarky comment, "Just a scratch." 'Room for improvement,' the billionaire CEO responded. The launch comes days after NASA employees signed a public letter to President Donald Trump and his administration, urging them not to make massive cuts to the space agency — many of which have been proposed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), formerly headed by Musk. 'We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement and efficient use of public resources,' the employees wrote. Read the original article on People
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
SpaceX delivers four astronauts to the International Space Station just 15 hours after launch
SpaceX delivered a fresh crew to the International Space Station on Saturday, making the trip in a quick 15 hours. The four US, Russian and Japanese astronauts pulled up in their SpaceX capsule after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. They will spend at least six months at the orbiting lab, swapping places with colleagues up there since March. SpaceX will bring those four back as early as Wednesday. Advertisement 4 SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida heading to the International Space Station on Aug. 1, 2025. NASA via Getty Images Moving in are NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov — each of whom had been originally assigned to other missions. 'Hello, space station!' Fincke radioed as soon as the capsule docked high above the South Pacific. Advertisement Cardman and another astronaut were pulled from a SpaceX flight last year to make room for NASA's two stuck astronauts, Boeing Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose space station stay went from one week to more than nine months. Fincke and Yui had been training for the next Starliner mission. But with Starliner grounded by thruster and other problems until 2026, the two switched to SpaceX. Platonov was bumped from the Soyuz launch lineup a couple of years ago because of an undisclosed illness. 4 Three astronauts and one cosmonaut wait to board their transportation vehicles to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 1, 2025. Austin DeSisto/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Advertisement 4 The SpaceX capsule docks with the International Space Station on Aug. 2, 2025. AP 4 The SpaceX capsule docks to the International Space station 15 hours after liftoff. AP Their arrival temporarily puts the space station population at 11. Advertisement The astronauts greeting them had cold drinks and hot food waiting for them. While their taxi flight was speedy by US standards, the Russians hold the record for the fastest trip to the space station — a lightning-fast three hours.
