30 PTC-Sponsored, Award-Winning Teams traveled to “Super Bowl of Smarts™”

NEEDHAM, Mass. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 9, 2012 — 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.”