| Students 'Zero' in on robotics final
The robotics squad from Orchard Park Secondary School is in Atlanta, Ga., facing the world's best for this weekend's international final. After months of preparation, more than 130,000 students in 37 countries have been designing, building and testing robots to get to the FIRST finals. In all, 550 robots have invaded Atlanta. "It's pretty humming," Orchard Park teacher Stan Hunter said from Atlanta. He leads the only Hamilton team, Orchard Park Patriotics. Their robot, Zero, has a glitch they must fix quickly. Its camera was broken in the Toronto semifinal -- without it, Zero can't navigate. The 16th FIRST robotics competition has 8,600 students in 344 teams putting robots to the test in this year's game of Rack 'n' Roll. Robots must stack inflatable rings on a rack with protruding "spider" arms.
Robotics rookies heading to world championship
Orchard Park Secondary School's Robotics Club, led by teacher Stan Hunter, claimed top honours at the 2007 Greater Toronto Regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition last weekend at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. FIRST is an annual competition designed to help high school students discover the rewards and excitement of science, engineering and technology. Competing against 63 teams from Canada and the United States, the Patriotics and their robot, "Zero," rolled over the competition and are now headed to the world championship April 12 to 14 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. "I'm extremely proud of not only the students but also the staff; they put in countless hours into the robotics program and I think it's just a credit to Stan and the kids and all the time they put in," said Orchard Park principal Pat Rocco.
(5ยบ) Technology at the FIRST Championship
Other FIRST Championship sponsors this year are: Abbott Laboratories -- FIRST Pit Sponsor; The Coca-Cola Company -- FIRST Team Alliance Sponsor; FedEx Corporation -- FIRST Shipping Sponsor; NASA -- Machine Shop and Satellite Broadcast Sponsor; Underwriters Laboratories -- FIRST Safety Partner; Delphi Corporation -- FIRST Hall of Fame Sponsor; Dassault Falcon Jet Corporation -- FIRST Hospitality Center Sponsor; United States Patent and Trademark Office -- FIRST Sponsor; Georgia Institute of Technology -- FIRST Scholarship Row Sponsor; Central Intelligence Agency and Rolls-Royce -- FIRST Robotics Conference Sponsors; and the FIRST Robotics Competition Peachtree Consortium: AT&T Georgia; The Arthur M.
Blank Family Foundation; Georgia Research Alliance; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., A Cisco Company; Southern Company; UPS; and Women in Technology, Inc.
Bionic suits a workplace hazard of the future?
Bionic suits, robotic assistants and computers that think for themselves, could be just a few of the more unusual hazards facing health and safety managers in the future. Speaking at the recent Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) conference in Telford, Peter Ellwood of the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) explained how safety officials were already looking ahead to 2017 to prepare for possible future risks. The 'Horizon Scanning' project, headed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), had already identified a range of issues to focus on over the next few years. These included obesity, nanotechnology, changing work patterns, increasingly complex occupational health problems and the "hydrogen economy".
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