Clinton robot team in Atlanta for championship tournament; Competition updates to be sent home by phone and Twitter.

Byline: Karen Nugent

CLINTON - The Clinton Gael Force FIRST team has had a banner year already in this year's robotics competition.

The team, consisting of about 20 Clinton High School students along with 20 parents, teachers, and Nypro employees, arrived yesterday in Atlanta for this weekend's championships at the Georgia Dome.

Nypro spokesman Alfred J. Cotton, traveling with the team, said the flight was uneventful.

The Clinton-Nypro team, now in its 18th successful season, won two special awards at the Boston regional tournament and won the entire Hartford regional tournament. Both were last month. About 500 teams, with 10,000 students, from all over the country will compete in the national event. FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was founded in Manchester, N.H., in 1992 by inventor Dean Kamen. The Clinton team won the entire event the first year, when only about 30 teams participated.

Teams, consisting of students and engineer mentors, are required to build a radio-controlled robot in six weeks out of a kit of miscellaneous parts supplied by the organizers. Robots compete in timed sporting events.

This year, Nypro helped supply special wheels used by all 1,600 robot teams in the competition, called "Lunacy." The robots, on slippery wheels, are required to collect "orbit balls" and put them in payload trailers.

Beginning tomorrow on qualification day,

hourly telephone reports on the team will be available by calling [phone]. And for the first time, the Gael Force team will run a Twitter feed at the competition.

Beginning at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow , get "twitterer" Tim Baird's reports by going to @Gaelforce126 on Twitter accounts. During competitions, posts will be made immediately following each match, with results, scores, and other information, Mr. Cotton said.

Updates can also be sent to cell phones via text messaging.

The championship rounds are Saturday afternoon. The team is scheduled to arrive back in Clinton around 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: A robot deposits balls into a hopper during FIRST competition in 2000 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

PHOTOG: T&G File Photo/MIKE CASTAGNARO