By SooToday.com Staff
SooToday.com
Monday, April 19, 2010

NEWS RELEASE

KNIGHTS OF ALLOY
ROBOTICS TEAM

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Although the Algoma District School Board's Knights of Alloy robotics team did not qualify for the World Championships this year, the team did have an entry into one of the World FIRST final judges' awards.

In March, while attending the Waterloo Regional, the team's own Ian Graham (robot programmer and website manager) was selected as a "dean's list" finalist.

This award recognized Ian's substantial contribution to team leadership and mentoring newer team members, as well as his efforts as a mentor for one of our local elementary school FLL (Lego) robotics teams.

As a recipient at the regional level, his award was forwarded, along with the other 89 finalists from the 45 regionals, to the final award judging stage at the World Robotics event in Atlanta.

The Knights of Alloy have just learned that when the final judge's awards were read out in Atlanta on Saturday, Ian's name was among the 10 winners that they selected.

It's a high honour considering that of the approximately 2,000 entries received for this award at the regional level.

Ian was selected to the final roster of 90 names and then came out as one of the 10 recipients.

Approximately 65,000 secondary school students participated in this competition this year, so he has placed very highly within this league.

This award contains no cash bonus or other incentives - but it does recognize a team leader and shows that the Sault has some very strong candidates within the world stage.

The team would like to congratulate Ian Graham for this distinctive honour and wishes him the best of luck as he embarks on his post-secondary pursuits once he graduates from Korah Collegiate and leaves the team at the end of this season.

- Jonathan Budau, coach/mentor, The Knights of Alloy robotics team

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