BUTLER TWP — Robots will form alliances next March at Butler County Community College.

The Heinz Endowments has picked BC3 to manage a program for high school students to build working robots for competition.

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology was created in 1989 by Dean Kamen, who is most famous for his inventions such as the Segway and the insulin pump.

With this Heinz grant, FIRST has a representative in Western Pennsylvania for the first time. Previously, competitions were directed from Philadelphia.

David Richardson began as FIRST project director in January. He wants to get high schools from Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties involved.

He also wants businesses to partner with schools. Businesses can exchange support for marketing and develop the workforce, Richardson said.

The Heinz Endowments made a two-year commitment to BC3 for the program. A grant of $175,000 will pay to coordinate the program and to get more schools involved. A second grant of $100,000 will be used to create partnerships between robotics businesses and the college.

Richardson works out of his Cranberry Township office coordinating this year's robotics competition at the Peterson Event Center that will run Thursday through next Saturday. Thousands of participants and spectators are expected to attend.

"We want people to look at this like they look at a Pirates game," Richardson said.

The event is the culmination of a six-week program for high school teams of about 15 to 25 students.

The teams organize at the beginning of the school year. Then in January, FIRST holds a kick-off event where the teams learn what the robots will be required to do. At the same time, they receive a parts kit and the rules for that year's competition.

The parts kit contains the basic equipment to build a robot. Teams can, and are encouraged to, go to businesses to find people with expertise and innovative parts to make their robot better

"You are only limited by your team's imagination," Richardson said.

This year, robots are required to move and shoot balls to different goals. First, the robots do tasks individually. Then, the top-seeded teams choose other teams to create alliances for the final stage of the competition.

The alliances of robots form their own teams for a game. Robots will work on defense and offense to get balls in a goal about 8 feet off the ground. The robots "see" the goal because it is illuminated by a green light.

Teams also have to leave time at the end of the competition to earn bonus points by climbing a ramp.

At the same time, judges will interview the members of the team that also form business and marketing plans and are required to create a Web site.

Judges consider these extras and may even give awards for teams who don't win, but have worked hard to produce their work, Richardson said.

There are 33 regional competitions like the one in Pittsburgh. Twenty-five teams are competing this year at the Peterson Event Center, four of them are from Allegheny County.

"There will be a winner and someone will cry, I promise," Richardson said.

The winners move onto national competition in April.

Developing student talents is a large part of what Richardson hopes to accomplish by the BC3 First project. He will work with the admissions staff to find students who might not have thought of going furthering their education past high school but who found an interest in the robotics program.

"You've got kids who are close to doing something stupid or doing nothing at all, that's who we want to catch," Richardson said.

He also wants to bring more women and minorities into the competition

Susan Changon, BC3 spokeswoman, said the project will help an area that has seen the workforce demands change as manufacturing declined.

She said the college has begun preliminary meetings for next year's competition.