EAGAN, MN, 12/13/2007 -- Lockheed Martin's [NYSE: LMT] business in Eagan recently hosted 400 students from 30 Twin Cities high schools during the region-wide seminar for Minnesota robotics teams called Minnesota Splash!

Minnesota Splash! is a half day training seminar for first and second-year teams of students competing in regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competitions. As part of the competition, high school students design and build robots to compete against each other in the performance of a specific task.

We need to develop pipelines for future engineers, said Rick Udicious, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin's Tactical Systems business unit. It's been our experience that the best way to improve students' interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is through ‘hands on' or ‘immersion' to get them excited about the challenges and rewards of solving the world's toughest problems.

Lockheed Martin's Minnesota Splash! provided students with a wide variety of learning activities and useful information for building and programming a robot and for organizing and running a robotics team. Additional topics covered during the training included setting student expectations for competitions, fundraising and game strategy.

Lockheed Martin engineers and representatives from FIRST Robotics provided information on wiring robots, programming and pneumatics demonstrations. Students also explored the capabilities of five robots entered in prior competitions. The goal of the event was to ramp up rookie Minnesota teams as quickly as possible and expose students to technical capabilities needed during the season. In addition, students were given help in establishing communication between the teams.

Thanks, Lockheed Martin, for hosting the Minnesota Splash!; the event opened my eyes to a world of exciting career possibilities and technologies that I never considered before building a cool robot, said Cesar Avalos, senior at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis.

Lockheed Martin's outreach efforts are focused on growing students' science and technology education and to actively support efforts to spark early student interest. Lockheed Martin supports FIRST Robotics by providing executive and planning committee members, team mentors, and financial support.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.