Talent and a little intrigue will rock the Recreation Center at Kettering University on Saturday, Sept. 22, as high school students jam to loud music and amaze the crowd with their skills in technology and engineering during the Kettering Kickoff robotics competition.

Team Roboto from Anderson will be competing.

The 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. event is free and open to the public and part of the national FIRST effort (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). FIRST helps high school-aged students discover how interesting, fun and rewarding science and engineering can be. 

Thirty-six teams from Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Canada will compete at Kettering with the hopes that their team has what it takes to stop their competitors. Six weeks before the competition, students receive a box of parts from a top-secret location at Kettering University. This year the challenge presented to students is to program their robots to place intertubes on racks (Rack ’n’ Roll). 

Kettering University will present several awards to various teams at the competition. To learn more about the Kettering Kickoff, call Bob Nichols at (810) 762-9828 or via e-mail at bnichols@kettering.edu. For more on the national program, visit www.usfirst.org.