New England’s Largest Robotics Competition Returns, Featuring Two All-Girls Teams

HARTFORD, Conn. – The next generation of female engineers and innovators will be put to the test at Northeast Utilities FIRST Connecticut Regional Robotics event.

Dozens of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) employees are mentoring hundreds of students on 22 teams, including the only two all-girls teams in the regional competition. Each team has the same mission: six weeks to turn a box of parts into a fully-functioning robot, equipped to face-off in an arena style battle. All will compete on April 1-2 at the Connecticut Convention Center and admission is free.

This year marks the rookie season for the “Tech Tigers” of Middletown. The team consists entirely of female Mercy High School students who are also 4-H members. The girls are mentored by parents and teachers, as well as engineers from Sikorsky and Carrier. The team also features a father-daughter pair – a retired Pratt & Whitney quality manager whose daughter is a freshman at Mercy High School.

“Athena’s Warriors” have also returned for their second season of competition. The East Hartford team is guided by women engineers from Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, NASA and the Girls of Innovation Technology Council.

United Technologies employees volunteer 27,000 hours every year as mentors and judges. UTC supports 72 FIRST teams nationwide and has donated more than $3 million to FIRST Robotics since 1995. In 2010, the company also established a grant program to help winning FIRST Regional teams compete in the national competition.

United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Connecticut, is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building industries. UTC’s products include Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines, Sikorsky helicopters, Carrier heating, air conditioning and refrigeration systems, Hamilton Sundstrand aerospace systems and industrial products, Otis elevators and escalators, UTC Fire & Security systems and UTC Power fuel cells.