Oak Ridge Today

SSAB welcomes new student representatives

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ORSSAB Gracie Hall and Julia Riley

Gracie Hall of Oak Ridge High School, left, and Julia Riley of Hardin Valley Academy are the new student representatives to the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board for Fiscal Year 2013-14. (Submitted photo)

The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board welcomed two new student representatives at its May meeting. Gracie Hall and Julia Riley will serve on the board through April 2014.

ORSSAB is a federally chartered citizens’ panel that provides recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. [Read more…]

Hardin Valley Academy senior wins four-year UT-Battelle scholarship

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Meredith Graves UT-Battelle Scholarship

Meredith Graves, a senior at Hardin Valley Academy and winner of the 2013 UT-Battelle Scholarship, is pictured above with Thom Mason, Oak Ridge National Laboratory director. (Submitted photo)

Meredith Graves, a senior at Hardin Valley Academy, is the recipient of the 2013 UT-Battelle Scholarship to the University of Tennessee.

The four-year, $20,000 scholarship, presented annually to a graduating senior with a parent who works at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is awarded annually to an outstanding student who plans to study science, engineering, or mathematics at the University of Tennessee.

Graves, daughter of Van and René Graves of Knoxville, has already been accepted into the University of Tennessee’s Bachelor of Architecture program, where she hopes to apply her interest in STEM-related fields to the design of energy efficient and environmentally friendly structures. [Read more…]

Local FIRST robotics teams dominate regionals, advance to national competition

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First Robotics Competition

From left, Oak Ridge High School’s Andreas Franco feeds discs into the team’s robot as Tag Groff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory mentor Mark Buckner, and Amelia DiAngelo manage the controls. (Photo by Jason Richards/ORNL)

Frisbee-flinging robots took over the Knoxville Convention Center last weekend, as thousands of high school students, mentors, and volunteers gathered for the third annual FIRST robotics Smoky Mountains regional competition.

Local teams Hardin Valley Academy, Oak Ridge High School, and Halls High School netted the championship title in a nail-biting finale at the regional event, qualifying them to compete in the national finals held April 24-27 in St. Louis. A team from Roane County High School, which won the Rookie All Star award, is also bound for nationals. The four high schools are among 14 teams sponsored by UT-Battelle, the managing contractor of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The FIRST robotics competition gives high school teams six weeks to design, build, and program a complex robot that can meet the intense demands of the year’s game. Throwing discs and climbing pyramids were among the challenges of the 2013 game, called Ultimate Ascent. [Read more…]