Aberdeen chapter sponsors Robotics Competition.

NDIA's Aberdeen Proving Ground Chapter is providing financial assistance to science and engineering students.

The chapter recently presented $500 checks to the Harford Technical High School Cobra Robotics Team and the Boys and Gifts Club of Harford County Lego Robotics Team. Both robotics programs are located near the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland.

Harford Technical High School is beginning its third year of competition in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotic Competition. The FIRST is a nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering.

"We are the only team in Harford County that competes in FIRST, said Stan Childs, parent volunteer for the Cobra Team, "and with no funding from the school system, students must raise the budget through company and family sponsorships."

The Boys and Gifts Club Program uses Lego bricks to build robots. The program requires youths between the ages of nine and 14 to engage in hands-on robotics design and construction, using interlocking plastic Lego pieces along with motors, sensors, and a microprocessor. The APG chapter sponsored the Boys and Girls Club last year, when the team placed in the top 10 at the international championship in Atlanta, Ga. This year's team won the Maryland State Championship in January and will again compete in the international championship.

The chapter has chosen to support the robotics programs because they show young people that technological fields hold many opportunities and that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering, and invention are exciting and interesting, said the unit's president, Joe Andrese.

For more information on FIRST see http://www.usfirst.org/, for more information on the APG chapter of NDIA see http://www.ndiaapg.org/.