By Mykal McEldowney (Contact / Staff Bio)
March 29, 2008 - 12:04 a.m. EST

CLEMSON — Six weeks of assembly, and now they’re ready to activate.

Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum is the home for the 36 teams in this year’s fifth annual FIRST Robotics Competition Palmetto Regional.

Six states will be representing the Palmetto Region — South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Florida and North Carolina.

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, FIRST was founded in 1989 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen to encourage young people's interest and participation in science and technology.

In January, the teams received their marching orders for the competition giving the teams six weeks to prepare.

Each team was given a kit with a specific assignment to construct a robot weighing no more than 120 pounds that could complete a task in a particular amount of time.

For this year’s competition, teams designed robots to race around a track by remote control to retrieve 40-inch Trackballs and maneuver them above or below a 6-foot, 6-inch overpass.

Teams are given 2 minutes and 15 seconds to complete the task and are judged by point collection, design, squad spirit, professionalism and perseverance.

Two local teams are participating in this year’s competition consisting of Pendleton residents and students from four Oconee high schools forming one team.

This year’s regional event leads students to an international championship competition, which will be held between April 17-19 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

One thousand five hundred teams in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands and England, consisting of more than 32,000 high school students will compete.

The games, lasting from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., are free and open to the public on Saturday.