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"  (Photograph by Derek Berg)  Thanks to General Tools for supporting Popular Mechanics and FIRST Robotics, a program founded by inventor Dean Kamen, which brings competitive, real-world engineering to high school students. Popular Mechanics was on deck with a booth at the New York Regional Competition March 8, 2009, where students found time between robotic bouts to enter a raffle for machinist kits by General Tools &amp;amp;amp; Instruments.   Building robots from the ground up requires the students to have a well-stocked toolkit. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t think I could even count how many tools and materials we use,&amp;quot; Jonathan Meed, 17, says. Meed is a member of Stuypulse, New York City&amp;#039;s Stuyvesant High School Robotics Team. &amp;quot;Every part of our robot was prototyped at least two different ways. The conveyor was first built out of wood, then metal, and then we built the final version.&amp;quot;   The three teams that walked away with General Tools &amp;amp;amp; Instruments precision caliper kits were the Robofighters from St. Johns Lutheran School of Staten Island, N.Y., Stuypulse from Stuyvesant High School of Manhattan, and Systemetric from Hills Road Sixth Form of Cambridge, U.K.   Teams who participated in the New York regional competition have the opportunity to compete in other FIRST regionals (view the schedule here) in the coming weeks. Stuypulse will send its robot into the ring at the Connecticut Regional the weekend of March 26th. Wins in the regionals will send teams to the FIRST Championship, which will be played in Atlanta&amp;#039;s Georgia Dome from April 16 to April 18. \u2013Allie Haake   RELATED STORIES \u2022 PLUS: The Results from the FIRST Robotics 2009 NYC Regionals  \u2022 Q&amp;amp;amp;A: Sitting down with FIRST&amp;#039;s Creator, Dean Kamen  \u2022 PLUS: Inside the Pirate&amp;#039;s FIRST 2009 Robotic Design   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a4193/4308388/>