| NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release |
|||
Contact: |
Jaime Saeger Marketing Director +1 (813) 875-7575 x320 marketing@jpg.com |
Pegasus Imaging Corporation 4001 N. Riverside Drive Tampa, FL 33603 USA www.pegasusimaging.com |
|
PEGASUS IMAGING STEPS IN TO SUPPORT LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL ROBOTICS TEAM |
TAMPA, FL, APRIL 9, 2007 – Pegasus Imaging Corporation, a leading developer of digital imaging technology, today announces support of Middleton High School’s Robotics Team through a significant financial donation. The acronym FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” and is a charitable organization that runs a yearly global robotics competition for teenagers, at which Middleton’s team competes.  Middleton High School is less than 3 miles from Pegasus Imaging’s headquarters, and Team Minotaur #1369 is the only participating team from Hillsborough County, Florida. Although this team encourages participation from all students, the FIRST program also complements the school’s Magnet Programs designed to lead students into career paths involving mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. As an expanding software development company in Tampa, Pegasus Imaging and its employees want to show their support for creating a fun environment for technology development in the local public school system. Tom Setzer, program manager at Pegasus Imaging, became a mentor this year. “What impressed me the most about Team 1369 is how excited they were to talk to me about their robots. It was clear that they had built them, and their excitement quickly transferred to me. I made a commitment to get involved, and then attended several more build sessions and started to help the software team. The first thing that happens when you become a ‘mentor’ is the kids teach you everything you need to know about building robots. They explained the pneumatic transmissions (saves battery power), the CPU (brains of the robot), PID loops (software algorithm used for driving your robot, or keeping it from moving if someone pushes on it), and the control system (a strange collection of video game joysticks). I was hooked!” We learned together, and I shared relevant knowledge I had learned from my experiences,” said Tom. “They shared what they had learned while building this year’s and previous year’s robots. At one point, after explaining some math that could help speed up the software to John, one of the students, he called over a friend and said, ‘Check this out! Isn’t that cool?’ He explained what I had taught him to his friend. It was a powerfully fulfilling and gratifying experience.” Team Minotaur began their build season in early January when they received the FIRST organization’s “game rules.” During the next six weeks, the team worked long hours to design, build and program a robot to play in the competition games. These high school students built the robot themselves with a little guidance from Middleton teachers and mentors William Vasden and Marian Manganello, and mentors from USF Roger Riquelme and Steve Kowski. The competition rules change each year. This year’s challenge is to have the robot pick up and hang inner tubes on a horizontal pole to score in a fashion similar to Connect Four or Tic-Tac-Toe. This year’s robot is about 5 feet tall with a claw at the end of a 5 foot arm. For extra credit, the robot was programmed to function in automatic mode. During March, Team Minotaur’s robot placed first at the Peachtree Regional in Duluth, Georgia and placed fourth at the Palmetto Regional in Columbus, South Carolina. The team qualified to compete at the national championship competition taking place in Atlanta this weekend, April 12-14. They have a good chance at doing very well at the championships. The FIRST program encourages an environment promoting academic excellence for the students of our community, and also provides college scholarships. About $8 million in scholarships will be awarded to 345 FIRST Robotics Competition students this year. A study by Brandeis University showed that when compared with a similar group, FIRST students are more than 3 times as likely to major specifically in engineering. They are roughly 10 times as likely to have had an apprenticeship, internship, or co-op job in their freshman year of college. They are significantly more likely to expect to achieve a post graduate degree, more than twice as likely to expect to pursue a career in science and technology, and nearly 4 times as likely to expect to pursue a career specifically in engineering. “Having experienced this first hand,” says Tom, “I truly believe in the vision that the founder of FIRST, Dean Kamen, set for the organization: ‘To create a world where science and technology are celebrated… where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.’ I see that this program has created this dream for a number of these young people, and I’m proud to play a part in that vision.” If you would like to help sponsor Team Minotaur, please e-mail William Vasden at William.Vasden@sdhc.k12.fl.us. More information about FIRST can be found at www.usfirst.org. Pegasus is a registered trademark of Pegasus Imaging Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
| About Pegasus Imaging |
| Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Pegasus Imaging Corporation delivers digital imaging software development components, image compression and image editing technologies. The company exceeds speed and quality requirements for document imaging, forms processing, medical imaging, color/photo imaging, video applications and more. Technology is delivered as Microsoft .NET controls, COM controls, DLLs and applications. Multiple platforms are supported, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, IBM AIX and Mac OS X. Visit www.pegasusimaging.com for more information. |
About FIRST Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With the support of many of the world’s most well-known companies, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Vex Challenge for high-school students, the FIRST LEGO® League for children 9-14 years old, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year-olds. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org. |
# # # |
