A team of young scientific minds from central Oklahoma won the tri-state championship in a global robotics competition designed to ignite enthusiasm for discovery, science, and technology in kids.  Team Rainstorm Robotics, scientifically-inspired kids aged 7 to 14, led by coach Ron Markum, will advance to the world championship in Atlanta, Georgia in April 2008, after earning the regional prize with their “Runaway Ralph” entry, which proposes a solution to the “Power Puzzle Challenge”.  The competition includes 7,000 teams in 35 countries, according to organizer, U.S. First.
“Our kids have done an outstanding job demonstrating teamwork and innovative thinking,” said Markum, Sr. Research Engineer, Mechanical Engineering Dept, Oklahoma State University.  “This program entices children to think like scientists and engineers and provides a fun, creative, hands-on learning experience, while building self-esteem and confidence.  I am very proud of our team,” he added. 
Team Rainstorm Robotics is Brandon Rhodes, Matthew Markum, Adam Ferguson, Josh Ramsey and Samuel Hardy (Stillwater), Tom Lu (Edmond), Gus White (Perkins) and Tevin Willams (Perry).

U.S FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a program to stimulate interest in science and engineering and annually embarks on a challenge for participants based on current, real-world issues.  The 2007 theme of the program, dubbed Power Puzzle, encourages children to explore choices of energy usage, understand the relationship between energy use and the environment, and improve energy use. Each team researches and solves a real-world problem based on the challenge theme, presents their research and solutions and builds an autonomous robot using engineering concepts.

FIRST Robotics has three levels of competition: the FIRST Lego league (FLL) for ages 9 to 14, the FIRST Tech Challenge for middle and junior high school ages, and the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) for high school ages.  Oklahoma was selected to host one of 42 FRC regional competitions.  Forty teams from Oklahoma and Kansas will converge at the Cox Convention Center in March 2008, to compete for the chance to advance to the Atlanta world championship. During the regional competition, several Lego league teams including Rainstorm Robotics, will demonstrate their robots.