"Team Titanic" Student Robotics Competition Based on Ghosts of the Abyss to Be Staged in Boston April 5
April 5, 2003
BOSTON - Teams of 4-8th grade students from throughout the Boston area will compete at the Epiphany School in Dorchester on Saturday April 5 as they power robotic vehicles they have designed and built through a scale-model recreation of the Titanic wreck. The robots will search for "artifacts" to film using tiny video cameras. The competition is staged by Tufts University's Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (CEEO) and Walden Media of Boston. Walt Disney Pictures, in association with Walden Media, will release James Cameron's GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS exclusively in 3D IMAX and specially refitted 3D 35mm theatres nationwide on Friday, April 11.
GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS, the creation of Academy Award®-winning director and master storyteller James Cameron, journeys back to the site of his greatest inspiration--the legendary wreck of the Titanic. Accompanied by a team of the world's foremost historic and marine experts and his friend actor Bill Paxton, Cameron embarks on an unscripted adventure back to the final grave where nearly 1,500 souls lost their lives almost a century ago. The April 5 competition is based on the explorations in the film conducted by the revolutionary remotely-operated vehicles "Jake" and "Elwood" created for the expedition. These vehicles traveled through virtually all of the wreck, and with their built-in video cameras, captured images of artifacts unseen for more than ninety years.
More than 75 students from schools and after-school programs in Dorchester, Chinatown, Malden, and Lincoln are scheduled to compete in the April 5 event. Working with their mentors, engineering students from Tufts, these students have met regularly since the beginning of the year to design and build robots using the LEGO Mindstorms® system using special software created by CEEO.
In the competition, each robot will travel through a three-dimensional maze based on blueprints of the Titanic wreck provided by James Cameron's production company. Like "Jake" and "Elwood," the robots will use built-in video cameras to capture still images of artifacts similar to those found on the actual expedition, such as a bowler hat, a medicine bottle, dishes and a stained-glass window. One team will be picked from among all the others at the end of the day on April 5, and will be invited to exhibit their winning design at the New England Aquarium, which begins showing Ghosts of the Abyss on April 11.
"We are proud to partner with Tufts to hold this competition," says Micheal Flaherty, President of Walden Media. "'Team Titanic' helps kids get excited about math, science and engineering and underscores our commitment to helping students find exciting and unusual ways to stretch their learning far beyond traditional textbooks."
The event takes place April 5, 2003, between 9 am and 2 pm at Epiphany School, 154 Center Street, Dorchester, MA.
If you would like to learn more about GHOST OF THE ABYSS, go to the website at ghostsoftheabyss.com. To purchase advance tickets to this groundbreaking film, please call 1-888-DISNEY6.
