PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) today extended congratulations to its sponsored, award-winning teams at the FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship competition in St. Louis, Mo., April 25-28, 2012.

PTC-sponsored FIRST FTC team 2 Bits and A Byte showcases its competition robot. (Photo: Business Wire)

PTC’s investment in FIRST is an example of how the company is translating the concept of Shared Value, a major business trend and concept authored by Dr. Michael Porter in the Harvard Business Review in 2011, into reality as part of its overall community relations program. FIRST is a global initiative at PTC to help produce strong professionals that will go on to strengthen the companies that employ them, making the companies more competitive and successful.

Founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, FIRST has become the “Super Bowl of Smarts”, inspiring students to think, create and innovate in a forum of “gracious professionalism™.” Reaching more than 300,000 students worldwide in grades K-12 annually, FIRST has designed accessible, innovative, mentor-based programs that build science, technology, engineering, and math skills.

“PTC’s sponsorship of our FIRST Robotics Rosie Robotics, Team #839, has given this group of students the opportunity to learn the skills required to be successful in a real-world design and collaboration environment,” said Jay Cameron, Mentor for Rosie Robotics. “We are grateful that PTC was our sponsor for this year’s competition.”

Jay Cameron was recently honored with The Woodie Flowers Award during the Worcester Polytechnic Institute regional this past March. The award celebrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design and recognizes adult mentors who lead, inspire, and empower using excellent communication skills. PTC congratulates Mr. Cameron on this award. It’s because of people like him that today’s students are becoming tomorrow’s engineers and scientists.

PTC sponsored teams received the following awards at the 2012 FIRST Championship:

• FRC Awards
  • SPORK, #3196 from Mooresville, NC, won the Dean’s List award.
  • The Pink Team, #233 from Rockledge, Cocoa Beach, FL, won the Team Spirit Award.
  • High Rollers, #987 from Las Vegas, NV, won the Innovation and Control Award

PTC congratulates The Pink Team and the High Rollers for their advancement to the finals of the FIRST Robotics Championship. Out of 2,343 FRC teams that competed throughout the year, these two teams made the final six.

• FTC Awards
  • Auto Vortex, #5843 from Bucharest, Romania, won the Boot Strap Award.
  • Antipodes, #4529 from Pacifica, CA, won the PTC Design Award.

As a strategic partner, PTC continues to provide the highest level of sponsorship available at FIRST through its cumulative support of teams, annual in-kind donations, resources, technology, design and collaboration software, training, and employee involvement as well as contributions across the FIRST family of programs. PTC was a Crown Supplier to the FIRST^® Robotics Competition (FRC^®) for the sixth consecutive year and the official CAD and Collaboration Sponsor to the FIRST^® Tech Challenge (FTC^®) for the fourth year, providing free software, including Creo^®, Mathcad® and Windchill^® to participating teams.

“FIRST is a multi-dimensional program for PTC and its extended community. Employees, partners and customers join together to sponsor and work closely with teams to develop and inspire young people to realize their dreams of becoming science and technology leaders,” said Robin Saitz, SVP, solutions marketing & communications and FIRST Executive Sponsor, PTC. “PTC congratulates all the teams that participated in this year’s championship and we hope to see them again in the 2012-2013 season.”

At this year’s FIRST Robotics Championship, the PTC booth showcased many of this year’s robots modeled and managed with PTC’s solutions. Visitors learned how teams could use PTC software to quickly build a more competitive robot and communicate more effectively among team members. This is the same PTC software that is used by over 27,000 leading manufacturing companies around the world.

Additional Resources

• PTC and FIRST (web site)
• PTC Community Relations – Inspiring the Next Generation of Engineers (web site)

About FIRST^®

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from three out of every five Fortune 500 companies and close to $15 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST^® Robotics Competition (FRC^® ) and FIRST^® Tech Challenge (FTC^® ) for high-school students, FIRST^® LEGO^® League (FLL^® ) for 9 to 14-year-olds, (9 to 16-year-olds outside the U.S. and Canada) and Junior FIRST^® LEGO^® League (Jr.FLL™) for 6 to 9-year-olds. Gracious Professionalism^™ is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

About PTC (http://www.ptc.com)
PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) enables manufacturers to achieve maximum value from their product strategies with software and services that optimize key business processes throughout the entire product lifecycle – from conception and design to sourcing and service. The company’s integral solution portfolio unleashes product innovation, improves collaboration and ensures product data integrity within engineering and across the enterprise, supply chain and service partner networks. Founded in 1985, PTC employs nearly 6,000 professionals serving more than 27,000 customers worldwide. More information can be found at www.ptc.com.

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PTC, the PTC logo, Creo, Mathcad and Windchill are trademarks or registered trademarks of Parametric Technology Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

FIRST^®, the FIRST^® logo, FIRST^® Robotics Competition, FRC^®, FIRST^® Tech Challenge, and FTC^® are registered trademarks of the United States Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST^®). LEGO^® is a registered trademark of The LEGO Group. FIRST^® LEGO^® League, Junior FIRST^® LEGO^® League, FLL^® , and Jr.FLL™ are jointly held trademarks of FIRST and The LEGO Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2011 FIRST. All rights reserved.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50267831&lang=en