35,000+ Expected at FIRST Championship international robotics competition
This sounds like a great positive downtown event featuring the kind of image Detroit should be projecting--smart kids doing cool things--while have great economic tourism impact. Win-win. I would have been here with my kid if he was still of that age.
The K-12 event includes competitions involving four different FIRST programs, which are segmented into different age brackets:
Grades K-4 compete in the Lego Jr. competition, building models and creating a poster depicting research.
Grades 4-8 compete in the Lego League competition, which involves building robots using Lego Mindstorms technology.
In the Tech challenge, grades 7-12 are tasked with designing, building, programing and operating robots to play a floor game in an alliance format.
In the Robotics competition, grades 7-12 use a robot — built and programmed during a six-week timeframe prior to the competition — to try to defeat a boss in an 8-bit video game.
The prize for top performers is bragging rights for winning one of the largest youth robotics competitions in the world.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...troit-showcase
Robotics World Championship
The Robotics World Championship is at Cobo this weekend bringing tens of thousands of visitors to Detroit. They have a contract to hold the championship in Detroit for the next three years. Detroit could benefit from attracting more events like this and conventions as well.
Here's a little clip from WXYZ talking about the event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZQ7ExmZH9g