A wave of the future hit VCU’s Stuart C. Siegel Center as high schools from six states gathered to compete in the South Atlantic regional FIRST Robotics competition.
Before the competition began, however, VCU President Eugene P. Trani told the students and guests about the Karl Linn Scholarship that honors Karl Linn, a soldier and VCU engineering student who was killed in Iraq in January.
“We want to commemorate one of VCU’s engineering students who loved this competition and began his interest in engineering by being part of this first robotics competition at VCU,” Trani said, “and that is Karl Linn, who was recently killed in action in Iraq.
At its February meeting, Trani said, the VCU Board of Visitors unanimously approved awarding an annual scholarship in Linn’s name.
“Students receiving the Karl Linn scholarship for decades to come will be told of this young man’s sacrifice for his country,” he said. “The university is proud to provide this fitting memorial for one of its own.”
Richard Linn, Karl’s father, who assisted team 975 from James River High School in the competition called it a “great honor” to have a scholarship for the engineering school in his son’s name.
“It’s a tribute,” Linn said. “He wanted to be an engineer, and he was well on his way to doing that.”
The father said his son enjoyed the robotics competitions so much that he returned to his high school after graduation to recruit new members for the James River High team.
Trani said Karl Linn’s interests in this competition and engineering in general are two reasons he chose to announce the scholarship at the competition:
“The dean recommended it, and that was something that I thought was a great idea – to have a scholarship named after Karl – since this competition meant so much to him.”
NASA/ Langley Research Center and the VCU School of Engineering sponsored the three-day event that featured robots from different high schools competing in three-team alliances to place tetrahedrons on different goals on the playing field. After receiving points, the winning alliances move on to higher competition until a the contest ends.
Gov. Mark R. Warner also was onhand to welcome the competitors.
“It’s very cool to be here. . . and see some of the great future scientists and technologies right here at VCU,” Warner said in his opening speech. “I want to strongly encourage you to keep this passion up – keep this passion for science, technology and innovation, that is what’s going to distinguish our country from the rest of the world.”
Warner said the competition also celebrates ingenuity and team-building in the same way that team sports do.
“It’s the kind of energy that you see at a baseball or basketball game,” Warner said. “It’s important to celebrate both academic and athletic success. We need much more of this.”
Before competing, each robot must be inspected to ensure it adheres to the rules of the competition. Tim Matt, lead robot inspector, scrutinized each of the 62 robots before they hit the playing field.
“There are 50 things we inspect, from electronics to mechanical and pneumatics,” Matt said.
Because the competition is conducted at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, Trani said potential engineering students can be exposed further to the school’s facilities.
“It’s great for our school. They can see the quality of our facility,” he said. “It’s also interesting to note that 60 of these students who came through here are now in the engineering program”