Western North Carolina Gravity Games Soapbox Races Showcase Engineering, Science

Donning jackets, hoodies and gloves, more than 200 hundred spectators lined Church Street in downtown Lenoir, N.C., to support competitors in the first-ever Western North Carolina Gravity Games Soapbox Races on Saturday, Nov. 19. Google and Appalachian State University (ASU) co-hosted the event.

The event was a success! So much so that we're gearing up to do it again in April 2012.

Thirty-four teams - nine high school, 23 middle school, and two in the open division for university or corporate entries - from Alleghany, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba and Watauga counties competed to be the fastest car on the hill, all vying to win prizes including Android IdeaPads, trophies, medals and other goodies from both Google and ASU.

Soapbox cars are motorless vehicles capable of racing downhill, using just gravity and potential mechanical energy as the only propulsion mechanisms.

The Church Street race track was 650-feet long and some cars topped speeds at 30 miles per hour. The average speed was 17 miles per hour.

Each car competed in two event categories within its division: Speed and Creativity. With a time of 26.213 seconds, Hudson Middle School won the speed category in the middle school division beating 22 other teams. Caldwell Career Middle College won the speed category in the high school division, defeating 7 high school teams with a time of 26.962. Hudson Middle School also won the People’s Choice Award, given to the car the attendees voted as their overall favorite. Each team entered a car that was either custom-built or was created from an approved kit.

In the Creativity category, Jacobs Fork Middle School and St. Stephens High School took home top honors. In the open division, ASU’s North Carolina Center for Engineering Technologies won for its two-bicycle design. A list with all winners and participating schools is below.

ASU’s physics, technology and design graduate students, and Googlers from the data center in Caldwell County, served as mentors for the teams.

View the complete results and event photos at www.ncgravitygames.com.

Please continue to visit this blog for more details about the next soapbox race. We're going to expand it to include more counties.

Winners
Creativity - First-place winners only
Middle School: Jacobs Fork Middle School
High School: St. Stephens High School
Open: North Carolina Center for Engineering Technologies (NCCET) at ASU

People’s Choice Award: Hudson Middle School

Speed:
Middle School
First Place: Hudson Middle School
Second Place: William Lenoir Middle School (#31 car)
Third Place: Mountain View Elementary School

High School
First Place: Caldwell Career Center Middle College
Second Place: Newton-Conover High School
Third Place: Hickory High School

Open
First place - Google
Second place - ASU

Participating schools include the following:

Alleghany County Alleghany High School Piney Creek Elementary School Sparta Elementary School Avery County Avery County High School Cranberry Middle School Burke County East Burke High School Freedom High School East Burke Middle School Caldwell County Caldwell Career Center Middle College Collettsville School Hibriten High School Hudson Middle School Granite Falls Middle School William Lenoir Middle School

Happy Valley School Oak Hill School King's Creek Accelerated Elementary School Catawba County Hickory High School Newton-Conover High School St. Stephens High School Jacobs Fork Middle School Newton -Conover Middle School Northview Middle School Mountain View Elementary Catawba Rosenwald School NCCET/Appalachian State University Watauga County Green Valley Elementary School

Western North Carolina Gravity Games Soapbox Race Rolls into Downtown Lenoir

Google and ASU are seeking teams with brains and guts for engineering feat

Western North Carolina—do not start your engines. Huh?

Come Saturday, Nov. 19, Google and Appalachian State University (ASU) will be co-sponsoring the first-ever Western North Carolina Gravity Games Soapbox Race in downtown Lenoir, starting at 8:30 a.m.

Only the best, brightest and most courageous teams from area middle and high schools, colleges and businesses will use their engineering skills to design, construct and race in their own custom-built soapbox cars.

Competition will be fast, fun and fierce. The soapbox cars are motorless vehicles capable of racing downhill, using just gravity and potential mechanical energy as the only propulsion mechanisms. So, no engines allowed. But colored wigs and helmets are a must.

Google and ASU are seeking teams from Alleghany, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba and Watauga counties. The event is free and open to the public. Prizes and trophies will be awarded based on speed and creativity.

The Gravity Games tie into ASU and Google’s support for science, math, technology and engineering (STEM) initiatives. Google is committed to developing North Carolina’s future workforce through its community relations activities and STEM initiatives. The Gravity Games will be a fun, educational, inspirational and competitive hands-on activity on basic engineering. ASU physics and technology graduate students and Googlers from the data center in Lenoir will be mentors for the teams. The Judging Committee will be comprised of representatives from Google, NC, Appalachian State University, Lenoir public officials and Caldwell County public officials.

Though we want everyone to be as creative as possible, soapbox cars will need to comply with designated safety and design standards. Safety first!

So if you think your team has what it takes to win, please call Carla Ramsdell at 828-262-8475 or email her at gravitygames@appstate.edu. Oct. 19 is the deadline to register a team. There will be a limit of 20 teams per division. The divisions are middle school, high school and the open division for university, corporate and private teams.

Details:

WHAT: The Western N.C. Gravity Games Soapbox Race
WHO: Middle school, high school and college students, business leaders, ASU representatives, Googlers from the N.C. data center
WHERE: At Church Street (between the First United Methodist Church’s parking lot and Harper Avenue) in downtown Lenoir, N.C.
WHEN: Nov. 19, 2011 at 8:30 a.m.

National Digital Literacy Tour Heads to Lenoir

Google is a leader in our approach to provide our users with a safe online experience. So much so that we're taking the show on the road!

Google, partnering with the iKeepSafe Internet Safety Coalition, will host two free workshops on May 12 at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center as part of the Digital Literacy Tour.

The first event for teachers will be held in the afternoon.

The evening event, set from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m, is targeted toward parents and their children. These events will provide families with information and best practices for being safe online.

iKeepSafe representatives will provide insight and useful tips on how attendees can easily implement an Internet safety program in their homes.

Google Operations Manager and Lenoir resident Enoch Moeller and iKeepSafe President Marsali Hancock will lead the presentations. The invitation includes all of the details and please RSVP to digital-literacy-tour@google.com.

Please feel free to share the invite with any of your friends and family.

We look forward to seeing you!

Construction ramps up on second data center building

Demand for Google's search, email, documents, maps, video and other services have been growing rapidly. So much so that we’re happy to announce that we will be ramping up construction on the second data center at our facility in Lenoir/Caldwell County, N.C. Work on the facility should begin in 2011.

This is a part of our original data center construction plan. Google completed its first data center and constructed the shell for the second data center building in 2008. Build out and limited testing of the second building should begin in the first half of 2011 and the center should be fully operational by the end of 2011.

We continue to hire talented people to support our data center operation and as the second data center becomes operational, we will hire people to meet those needs. We’re currently advertising for the following positions:

• Data Center Environmental and Safety Technician - Lenoir
• Data Center Facilities Manager - Lenoir
• Data Center Facilities Technician - Lenoir
• Operations Technician Assistant (Temporary) - Lenoir
  

For updates about happenings at the data center, please continue to visit www.google.com/lenoir.

Google Lenoir Receives Statewide Tech Love

The team at the data center in Lenoir is proud to call Caldwell County/Lenoir home. So much so that NCTA (short for the N.C. Technology Association) recently honored Google with the 2010 Corporate Citizenship Company Award. Enoch Moeller, operations manager for the data center; Addison Nuding, administrative assistant and Erian McKinley attended the awards event on Nov. 10 in Raleigh.

“This year’s 21 Awards truly showcase the best technology and innovation that our state has to offer,” said Brooks Raiford, president and chief executive officer of NCTA. “We couldn’t be more pleased to have congratulated Google as a company that is leading North Carolina’s technology industry, and we are proud to recognize them as a winner of the Corporate Citizenship Company Award."

To learn more about NCTA, please visit http://www.nctechnology.org/about/.

Healthy Living Festival Second Annual Community Block Party Benefit Set for Downtown Lenoir

“Bridge to Bridge 2010”

All proceeds will be donated to area nonprofits that support healthy lifestyles

(Lenoir/Caldwell Co., N.C.) – Grab your sneakers, water bottles and pedometers. More than 25 nonprofit organizations are joining forces to support healthy lifestyle choices at the Second Annual Community Block Party Benefit and Healthy Living Festival, on Saturday, Sept. 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in downtown Lenoir.

Sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition choices plague our nation and community causing health care concerns that impact us all. To address this startling trend, the Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce and Google are co-sponsoring the Healthy Living Festival, which is a part of the official “Bridge to Bridge 2010” cycling challenge activities.

The Caldwell United Way and other area nonprofits will lead event activities and compete against each other in contests, which will focus on ways adults and young people can learn how to eat healthier and move more.

Activities include a 5K run, spin bike challenge, hula-hoop competition, jumping jack challenge, healthy snack tasting, health screenings, jump rope competition, “Minute To Win It” competitions and more. There also will be live music from area bands, a bouncy house, face painting, balloon art, a bike rodeo, raffle and other surprises.

Raffle tickets for a drawing to win Google-branded T-shirts, fold-up chairs, solar chargers, small toys, bags and Flip Video Camcorders can be purchased at the event. Raffle prizes are provided by Google. For more information about the Healthy Living Festival, please visit http://www.google.com/datacenter/lenoir.

WHO: The people of Caldwell County/Lenoir, community leaders, representatives from Google Inc., the Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce, Caldwell Friends, CIS of Caldwell County, Shelter Home of Caldwell County, Appalachian RSVP, Lenoir Fire Department, 4-H of Caldwell County, Caldwell Memorial Hospital, Caldwell Rotary Club and the Hibriten High School Band and JV Cheerleaders, to name a few.

WHAT: Second Annual Community Block Party Benefit and Healthy Living Festival
WHEN: Sept. 18, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
WHERE: Throughout downtown Lenoir

EVENT DETAILS:
Parking: Will be available in downtown Lenoir.
Participation Fees: The event is free and open to the public.

WHY: According to the National Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 36 percent of North Carolina adults are overweight– higher than the national average. It is important for everyone to be more vigilant about making healthy living choices. Adults need to be role models for young people to help them learn about proper nutrition and the importance of incorporating exercise into daily routines.

About the Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce
The Caldwell Chamber is a non-profit whose mission is to encourage economic prosperity by promoting business and enhancing the quality of life in the community. For more information about the Chamber and its work, visit www.caldwellcochamber.org or www.explorecaldwell.com.

About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Caldwell County High School Team Rock Rookie Year at FIRST® Robotics Competition

In April, two Caldwell County School teams participated in the NCFIRST Robotics competition. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a prestigious annual competition that challenges high-school students—working alongside professional mentors— to design and build a robot of their own, and compete in a ‘varsity sport for the mind’ that measures the effectiveness of each robot and showcases the power of teamwork and collaboration. Students build and program their own robots against a field of competitors and experience the excitement of science, engineering, technology and innovation.

Enoch Moeller, operations manager at the N.C. data center, and other Googlers provided technical assistance and were mentors for the teams.

Teams from the South Caldwell High School and a team comprised of students from Caldwell Career Center Middle College and Caldwell Early College competed in the competition.

The South Caldwell team placed 10th at the North Carolina Regional NCFIRST Competition, winning the Top Rookie Seed Award. The Caldwell Career Center Middle College and Caldwell Early College team placed 17th out of 44 teams in the regional competition. The Caldwell County teams were sponsored by Google and the Education Foundation of Caldwell County, Inc.

For more information, please visit http://www.ncfirstrobotics.org/frc/nc-frc-teams.html.

Pictured above: Rookie team the Knight Riders made repairs to the front wheels that had been damaged in a previous round of competition. Right: Team members Tyler Greer (standing part of transport team), Josh Tarr and Nathan Roberts (mechanical and pneumatic team); Background:Trevor Parrish (robot driver looking for tool); Center:Mentor Fred Wolf (retired defense engineer);Left: Ethan Hicks team member looks on, Freda Parker Lead mentor working and Kyle Wilcox transport team member looks on.

Photo credit: Kim Poole, mentor