Feb 26, 2018   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Mouser Electronics Empowers Student Innovation with FIRST Robotics Competition Sponsorships

Mouser Electronics, Inc., the New Product Introduction leader empowering innovation, is proud to announce that it is once again a major sponsor of the 2018 FIRST® Robotics Competition Dallas Regional, March 1–4 at the Irving Convention Center. As Captains of Innovation Sponsor, Mouser will showcase some of the newest technologies at its exhibit at the Dallas-area event, where 59 teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Brazil will compete.

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Members of the Haltom Robotics team from Haltom City, Texas, fine tune their robot at the 2017 FIRST ...

Members of the Haltom Robotics team from Haltom City, Texas, fine tune their robot at the 2017 FIRST Championship. (Photo: Business Wire)

Since 2012, Mouser has been a strong and consistent supporter of FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the world’s leading child-serving nonprofit advancing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Mouser sponsors FIRST competitions at the local, regional and international levels and also donates electronic components to FIRST teams.

“Electronics education is key to Mouser’s mission, going back to our founding more than 50 years ago,” said Kevin Hess, Mouser’s Senior Vice President of Marketing. “We are very proud to continue sponsoring FIRST, which supports the brightest young minds and future engineers.”

The 2018 arcade-inspired theme — FIRST POWER UPSM — promises to inspire and challenge students and to entertain audiences of all ages. Two 3-team alliances are “trapped” in an 8-bit video game, where they must control their robots to perform tasks and defeat the evil boss to win the game. Each FIRST Robotics Competition team receives a kit of parts — including motors, batteries, a control system, a PC and a mix of automation components — with no instructions. Teams have six weeks to transform their kits into working robots designed to perform specific tasks.

The Dallas Regional competition will be followed by the FIRST Championship held in Houston, April 18–21, and Detroit, April 25–28. Mouser will sponsor the Hall of Fame Exhibit, which honors the winning teams of the esteemed Chairman's Award at both championship locations. Overall, more than 91,000 high school students worldwide are expected to participate.

“The FIRST Robotics Competition provides students with a platform for innovation, a chance to solve real engineering challenges, and an opportunity to build character and self-esteem,” Hess added.

This year also marks the third time the competition will be offered through the University Interscholastic League (UIL), an organization that provides educational extracurricular contests for public primary and secondary schools in Texas. The UIL championship, also sponsored by Mouser, is set for May 17–19 at the Austin Convention Center.

To learn more about how Mouser supports FIRST, visit www.mouser.com/first.

With its broad product line and unsurpassed customer service, Mouser strives to empower innovation among design engineers and buyers by delivering advanced technologies. Mouser stocks the world’s widest selection of the latest semiconductors and electronic components for the newest design projects. Mouser Electronics’ website is continually updated and offers advanced search methods to help customers quickly locate inventory. Mouser.com also houses data sheets, supplier-specific reference designs, application notes, technical design information, and engineering tools.

About Mouser Electronics

Mouser Electronics, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is an award-winning, authorized semiconductor and electronic component distributor focused on rapid New Product Introductions from its manufacturing partners for electronic design engineers and buyers. The global distributor’s website, Mouser.com, is available in multiple languages and currencies and features more than 5 million products from over 700 manufacturers. Mouser offers 22 support locations around the world to provide best-in-class customer service and ships globally to over 600,000 customers in 170 countries from its 750,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility south of Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit www.mouser.com.

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