美国高校学生参加机器人大赛（在线收听）

美国高校学生参加机器人大赛

Call it the geek Superbowl. Six-hundred and eight teams of high school students from 40 countries competed last week in St. Louis, Missouri, to build robots capable of performing tasks related to recycling. Each team had to use the same set of parts and were given only weeks to build their robots.

A crowd of 40,000 cheered while the competitors nervously watched their robots maneuvering around the field with almost athletic precision, picking up empty recycle bins and stacking them in designated areas, with a trash can balanced on top.

比赛选手们紧张地盯着自己的机器人在场地上以运动员般的精准进行各种操作，台下4万多名观众在为他们喝彩。这些机器人捡起空的垃圾箱，将它们堆放到指定地点，垃圾桶顶部有垃圾可以保持平衡。

It's been like this since 1992, high school teams, robots and their fans gather on Einstein Field, in St. Louis, Missouri, for the annual world championship known by its acronym, FIRST.

1992年以来就是这样，高中团队、机器人和他们的粉丝们聚集在密苏里州圣路易斯爱因斯坦分场，参加年度FIRST比赛。

Robots had to catch and dispose of plastic pool noodles representing trash.

机器人必须抓起并处理掉代表垃圾的塑料面条。

Like any competition there was the agony of defeat ... breakdowns, with teams working feverishly to repair their robots and get them back on the field.

正如所有的比赛那样，这种比赛也有失败的痛苦、崩溃，各团队紧张地修理自己的机器人，然后让它们重返赛场。

But with championships in eight subdivisions, there were also plenty of winners.

不过这场比赛有8个分赛，所以能产生很多获胜者。

Christopher Pulicken was the driver for Team 118, “The Robonauts,” a part of the winning alliance.

克里斯多夫·普利肯是118号团队The Robonauts的驾驶员，该团队是获胜者之一。

“I feel amazing right now," he said. "We have been striving to get this world championship for 18,19, 20 years and counting. It's always escaped us but now, now it hasn't.”

“我现在感觉棒极了，过去18,19,20年间我们一直在争取获得世界冠军，但总是与之无缘，不过现在我们赢了。”

The competition began with local and regional events, and the most advanced teams came to the U.S. to compete in different challenges.

这场赛事先从地方和地区比赛开始，然后最优秀的团队到美国参加各种比赛。

These games got Bethany Rispoli, of Team 225, “Tech Fire,” into science and math.

这一比赛使得225号团队Tech Fire的贝瑟妮·瑞斯普利开始喜欢上科学和数学。

“It showed me that engineering, technology, science and math can be so much more than just paper doing problems," she said. "It showed me that it can be exciting, it can be just as fun as any sports any time.”

“比赛让我明白工程、科技、科学和数学不仅仅是书面上的难题，让我知道这些知识可以很有趣，像任何运动一样有趣。”

The technical mentor for Team 254, E.J. Sabathia, started as a member of the same team 15 years ago. He's now an engineer at Tesla Motors.

254号团队的技术指导沙巴西亚15年前就是这个团队的队员，他现在是特斯拉汽车公司的一名工程师。

“I want these kids to be able to see professionals doing those things day in and day out," he said. "See that we're normal people and see where they can go.”

“我想让孩子们看到专业人士们整天做的工作，看看我们作为普通人能做到哪些。”

Another engineer who started as a teenage robot competitor in FIRST is Mason Markee, who now works at NASA.

另一名工程师梅森·马基少年时就是FIRST比赛的机器人竞赛选手，他现在就职于美国航天局。

“My whole lab is full of old FIRSTers," he said. "You know, people who have done this before. That makes an incredible thing .. We just got a trophy out here. Isn't that awesome?”

“我们整个实验室的人员都曾经是FIRST选手，是以前就做过这类工作的人，这是很了不起的事，我们在这里已经得过奖了，不是很棒吗？”

This year’s coveted FIRST Robotics Competition was won by one team from Texas and three teams from California.

今年众所期待的FIRS机器人竞赛获奖者是来自德州的一个团队和来自加州的三个团队。