News

• WIRE at The Behrend College:  We are happy to be presenting an all day seminar at the Behrend College in Erie, PA on behalf of Eileen Zinchiak and GE.  Eileen is coordinating a great effort to raise both awareness and teams for the FTC program out in the western part of PA.  The event will feature friends of the FTC program in the area as well as quite a number of mentoring engineer types that will be helping to develop the teams.  The event is January 23rd at the Research Economic Development Center, the Behrend College, Penn State, Erie. The scheduled start time is 9:00 am.
   

• WIRE announces that "HotShoT"  the 2009 - 2010 FTC competition's FTC PA State Robotics Championship will be held in Weatherly, PA on March 6th, 2010.  The number of team registrations is limited to 32 as per FIRST rules.  This is the last season for open registration, next year's competition registration will be done through a series of qualifying events in PA.
  
  The cost to register is still only $200 per team and you can send your check to:  The Weatherly Institute for Robotics and Engineering (W.I.R.E.); 401 First Street, Weatherly, PA 18255.  We will send you a receipt by snail mail, confirming your spot at the competition.
  
  Call 570-401-7813 for more info or to have your questions answered.
  
  Thanks, we will see you there!
   

• T. Boone Pickens has introduced a "Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil" that involves solar, wind and natural gas alternative energy sources.  All of these are possibilities here in Pennsylvania.  Especially the Natural Gas reserves available for use under our native shale.  In our area wind on the ridge tops is also a key component for producing alternate sources of non polluting energy.

  

  Go to PickensPlan.com for more info.

• Carrying on the tradition of offering unique educational opportunities to our students, The Weatherly Institute for Robotics and Engineering went to Wilkes University, in Wilkes-Barre, PA on October 1, 2008 to hear a distinguished Inventor, Entrepreneur and Environmental concerned gentleman speak about his recent experiences in developing a viable electric car and the company that makes them, Mr. Martin Eberhard.  Our students had the chance to ask Mr. Eberhard questions in both the follow up question session at the end of his lecture and the post event reception.

      

• Summer Camp has come to a close, but the Theme of "The South Seas Island Adventure" will continue on throughout the winter.  The Water Table is under construction and the High School students have finished the design phase of our submersible "bot" and have
  begun the "build."

• Our Fall and Winter sessions have begun!

  It's time to get our First Lego League team together for this year's competition: "The Climate Challenge"  The Field mat and models have been ordered.  This year we will be using all of the power of the NXT kits!

       

• The Kick Off for the FTC teams has taken place,  this year's exciting game is "Face Off", and teams are already beginning to email their intentions of coming to the FIRST Tech PA State Robotics Championship to take place on February 28th, 2009 at the Weatherly Area Middle School Complex.  This year is especially exciting in that we will be using the new Robotics Kit "Tetrix", a very sophisticated metal kit with properties very similar to the FRC bots of the past.

  Check the Calendar Page for times and ages for our programs.

  We meet at the Weatherly Institute for Robotics and Engineering
  320 Carbon Street, Weatherly, PA  18255