2009 FIRST Events in ISRAEL

在美國沸沸揚揚的FIRST FRC機器人競賽，現在也開始跨到其他國家了。以下是以色列舉辦FIRST機器人競賽的相關報導，說不定未來在台灣我們也可以看到類似的CompactRIO機器人競賽!

2009 FIRST events in ISRAEL were held in the main basketball arena in Tel-Aviv for both FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).
The event was very successful and involved kids from all regions in ISRAEL, coming both from cities and small towns/villages where technology is high on their list of wants too. It was rewarding to see the integration of kids as new immigrants with those who were born in ISRAEL, integration of different languages spoken and more.
Following our past experience with FIRST and the big move of using cRIO as the main platform, NI ISRAEL dedicated many resources to help this event. Our team, led by Eran CASTIEL and the Applications Engineers group, made a big drive and put in extra hours to ensure the success of these kids facing high tech issues for the first time in their lives and also the success of the event itself. The team’s skills and commitment were appreciated both by the organizers and also by the individual teams (and parents too.)
During the past year, NI ISRAEL has developed a close relationship with the local branch of FIRST in ISRAEL, based on monthly meetings and activity planning. Part of the activities was a collaboration of PTC and NI, based on training and support. NI ISRAEL has also mentored three teams and helped local schools with limited resources by hosting hands-on activities.
NI ISRAEL also trained more than 200 people including students, teachers, engineers, and all academic channels up to Professors. The training agenda was based on LabVIEW materials and on CompactRIO concepts.

In conjunction with the FIRST competition, NI ISRAEL was able to build a close relationship with the Robotic center in the north of ISRAEL, located in the best academic technological institute in ISRAEL.

FIRST Robotics Competition Participation

Competition began in 2005 with 12 teams and has increased to 47 teams in 2009 including 1,500 high school students, 45 corporate sponsors. Of the 47 teams at the FRC, 90 percent were using LabVIEW as their programming language. The Israeli president, Shimon PERES made an official visit for the opening of the event and also visited the individual teams in both FRC and FLL.