Erie Community College, State University of New York

More than 400 students and teachers from 24 middle and high schools around Western New York will be participating in ECC Tech Wars 2009 competition from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday, May 21 in Buildings 5 and 6 at Erie Community College’s South Campus, 4041 Southwestern Blvd., Orchard Park, NY.

At Tech Wars, students will compete throughout the day in 13 events, including Habitat for Humanity home design and modeling, bridge design and testing, cardboard boat races, robotic soccer, catapult challenges, T-shirt logo design, mouse trap powered cars, mouse trap tractor pulls and a new elevation event. The largest event, the robotic cage match, will feature radio controlled 40-pound fighting robots.

Tech Wars is sponsored by VEX Robotics. the Western New York Technology Education Association, the Western New York Career Pathways Consortium and the Telecommunications Technology curriculum at ECC.

“ECC is proud to once again host Tech Wars, which draws some of our area’s best and brightest high school students,” ECC President Jack Quinn said. “I would like to thank the Western New York Technology Education Association and the Western New York Career Pathways Consortium for sponsoring this great event and I would like to commend the Telecommunications Technology curriculum at ECC for making this competition a success year after year.”

There is no cost to attend this event. For more information, call (716) 851-1736.

Erie Community College meets the needs of a diverse student body and contributes to regional economic vitality by providing excellent, flexible, affordable and accessible educational programs in a multi-campus environment committed to continuous improvement.