
Marylands team G-Force of McHenry qualified for the FIRST Robotics 2009 World Championships in Atlanta April 17 by winning the Inspire Award at the BAE Systems Maryland FIRST Championship hosted by the College of Southern Maryland in March. G-Force won the finalist award, for being a member of the second place alliance team in the final round of the FTC World Championship. Also attending the World Championships were CSM Business and Technology Chair Jeff Tjiputra, right, and Mark Czajka, chairman of the Charles County Technology Council. More than 10,000 students from 28 countries entered 533 robots in the competition. Tjiputra engages area youth in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) initiatives and coordinates and executes CSMs robotics competitions which have attracted more than 150 teams of elementary, middle and high school students to the La Plata Campus, some from as far away this year as the Bronx, NY.