Loud music pulses, a Jumbotron broadcasts the live action and an introduction booms out like at an Oregon State University basketball game, only at this venue, the announcer bellows, “It’s CeeeeeVeeeee Robotics.”

More than 700 high school students and teams from eight states, including Oregon, competed last weekend at the Davis/Sacramento Regional FIRST Robotics competition.

And two Corvallis-area schools, Crescent Valley and Santiam Christian, represented the Willamette Valley admirably in California’s Central Valley.

The team from Crescent Valley finished second overall, rising from a sixth-seed in the qualifying rounds. The team from Santiam Christian made it to the semifinals — where it lost to the CV team.

With one more win, the team would have advanced to the national competition in Atlanta, but adviser Mark Baldwin said he was happy with how far the team of 29 students had come.

The robotics team from Corvallis High School will take a shot this week at earning a spot in the national finals when it competes at another regional event in Las Vegas.

Winning isn’t the only thing emphasized in robotics competitions, Baldwin said.

Organizers are also hoping to inspire students to pursue engineering, as well as learn how to work as part of a team.

“We call it ‘coopertition,’” Baldwin said, a blend of cooperation and competition. “We compete hard, but we help one another out.”

The matches are set up like three-on-three basketball or rugby, with the objective to push or shoot a ball into a hoop or one of the two goals.

Santiam Christian’s team was recognized with the Xerox Creativity Award for its robot’s unique ball-handling system.

Back at their schools, students participate either by taking a class or joining a club. Crescent Valley’s team was a class last year and a club this year. Next year, Baldwin said he plans to offer robotics as a class again.

Most teams depend on local businesses for sponsorships to help pay the $6,000 entry fee and local engineers and other volunteers to mentor and assist students.

Baldwin said the program’s technical and interpersonal aspects make it a good investment.

“When you factor in how much the students gain from that, even though the cost is high, it’s a good deal,” Baldwin said.

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, focuses on building leadership, scientific and technical skills and teamwork, in addition to building robots, Baldwin said. Organizers have said the FIRST competition stimulates U.S. students’ interest and talent in engineering at a time when the supply of trained engineers is falling behind the demand for them.

The mid-valley has six robotics teams at high schools in Albany, Philomath and Corvallis, after receiving start-up funding in 2002 from NASA and the Oregon Space Grant Consortium. Santiam Christian and CV teams are now sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Co. and Videx.

How to help

WHAT: FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, focuses on building leadership, scientific and technical skills and teamwork by building robots.

VOLUNTEERS: People with engineering and other skills are needed to serve as mentors for local teams.

SPONSORS SOUGHT: Business sponsors are needed to help schools pay the annual $6,000 entry fee.

INFORMATION: Contact Mark Baldwin at 757-5829 or mark.baldwin@corvallis.

k12.or.us or Doug Edmunds at 929-2889 to learn more.

ON THE NET:

Archive video footage from the competition last weekend at the University of California at Davis’s Pavilion is available online is available at http://robotics.nasa.gov/

events/webcasts/regionals

_2006.php. The site also provides a link to see the Las Vegas Regional competition, beginning today and continuing Saturday, where the Corvallis High School robotics team will compete in hopes of landing a spot in the national finals.

Reporter Ben Antonius of the Woodland (Calif.) Daily Democrat newspaper contributed to this report.