Robotics Pasta Feed to Support Sonoma County's Tech High

OK, the robots aren't eating the pasta but this event sounds too good to pass up if you're anywhere in the vicinity of Sonoma county, California next Friday night. Dylan Field sent out this notice about a Pasta Feed to celebrate and support the Tech High FIRST Robotics team, to be held Friday May 9th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM in Rohnert Park.

Tech High is an alternative school of choice in the
Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District, located on the Sonoma State University campus. This small alternative high school focuses on math, science, critical thinking and engineering, and maintains close ties with SSU (my alma mater, Go Cossacks! Oh wait, I mean Go "Lobo the Seawolf" ?!? See SSU's Wikipedia entry for the sad story of the great mascot controversy).

Dylan writes:

One of the things I'm really involved in at Technology High School is the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics program. Our team builds robots over a six-week period each spring and then competes with them against other high-schools. These robots are tailored for a game which changes every year; this year's game required bots to travel counter-clockwise around a circular track and hurdle forty inch diameter balls over a six foot tall overpass.

We attended two events this year and had a blast at both. Among our accomplishments for this year were getting to the quarter finals at the UC Davis regional, receiving the Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Beyer's Entrepreneurship Award, and sponsoring a team to get them involved in FLL (FIRST Lego League).

I'd like to invite everyone to join me in celebrating the team's success at our annual Spring Pasta Feed. The Pasta Feed will be held on Friday May 9th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. It's at the Sonoma Mountain Village Catering and Event Center, 1100 Valley House Drive, Rohnert Park. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children 5-12, and free for children under 5. The Pasta Feed is a great opportunity to support the team or simply learn more about the program. If you have a child interested in getting involved, you should definitely come so we can answer any questions he or she has.

With our oldest son approaching high school age and our fairly close proximity to SSU, we've already been planning to take a serious look at Tech
High. Add some pasta and robots, and this event is definitely on our calendar.

(photo of Darmstadt Dribbling Dackels RoboCup Team)