Welcome

FIRST and the Planning Committee welcome you to the 2008 UC Davis-Sacramento Regional. We are proud and excited to host this regional again on the UC Davis campus. We want to thank the University of California, Davis for its continued leadership and support of this event. A special note of thanks to the Engineering Web Services team for their great efforts in construction of the Sacramento Regional web site http://firstsac.engineering.ucdavis.edu. Please visit this site for news and updated regional information as the season progresses.

This is our sixth season in Sacramento and out fourth at UC Davis. We are constantly building the foundation for a permanent and sustainable annual competition which will benefit students for years to come. We look forward to forging partnerships with local corporations and organizations who share our vision of providing inspiration and limitless opportunities for our students. As one student mentioned to his principal, “where can you find an applications-based educational program where students work for 12 hours straight and gladly come back the next day for more”! This is what the FIRST experience is all about.

The FIRST competition is based on the teaming of schools with Industrial / Engineering and Academic partners in their communities. We all share in the value of FIRST robotics as a leading example of educational excellence through inspiration, teamwork and self-discipline. In addition to mathematics, science and engineering, the FIRST competition teaches creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, project management and troubleshooting. These are “real world” life long lessons that students will carry with them as they join the community as contributing adults.

The Planning Committee would like to extend our most sincere thanks to the teams that will be participating: all the students, the teachers, engineers, parents, volunteers, universities, companies and organizations who have devoted their time and energy to make this event a success. This Regional is now a showcase for the remarkable talents of young people who will become tomorrow’s leaders.

Finally, we want you, the participants, to have fun and we plan to make the UC Davis-Sacramento Regional colorful, musical, exciting and full of surprises, coupled with “gracious professionalism”. Our local teams will try to assist you during your stay and they look forward to meeting you. Congratulations to everyone for your efforts and welcome to the Capital of California.

Sincerely,

Prof. Karen McDonald
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
University of California, Davis, CA 95616-5294
http://firstsac.engineering.ucdavis.edu
UC Davis-Sacramento Regional Planning Committee