Electronic components supplier Coilcraft has joined the FIRST—For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology program as a bronze-level sponsor of components for the kit of parts (KOP) students will use in this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The annual competition is part of the non-profit organization’s mission to inspire young people’s interest in science and technology, and it relies on business partners from the industrial and electronics community for ongoing support.
The 2015 FRC kicked off in January, when high school teams were given this year’s challenge: Recycle Rush, a recycling-themed game played by two alliances of three robots each. Working with adult mentors, students have six weeks to design, build, program, and test their robots to meet the engineering challenge. Once the young inventors create a robot, their teams participate in competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration, and the determination of the students. A series of district and regional events lead to the FRC championship at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, April 22-25.
Coilcraft provided all the inductors for this year’s KOP; the inductors were specified by the KOP design team for the voltage regulator. The donated parts included a number of Coilcraft’s XAL Family high-current, shielded power inductors along with their MLC1245 shielded power inductor.
“The mission of FIRST is to inspire young people to pursue careers in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. As a Bronze Supplier, Coilcraft provides tools that aid in experiential learning and allows FIRST to offer participants a glimpse of what it’s like to be a real engineer,” said FIRST President, Donald E. Bossi.
Coilcraft’s Director of Technical Marketing Len Crane added: “We’ve been supporting college-level engineering students and educators for years by providing free samples of our RF and power magnetics products, but we haven’t had many opportunities to help younger students explore STEM-related projects. So we were very excited when the folks at FIRST asked for our support with the 2015 FRC Kit of Parts.”
