Boyle Fredrickson sponsors local high school innovators

The 2013 FIRST Robotics and BattleBot seasons are underway and Boyle Fredrickson, Wisconsin’s largest intellectual property law firm, is proud to step into the high school competition joining the ranks of NASA and Rockwell Automation as team sponsors.

For the first time ever, the firm will support Hilltopper Robotics with members from both Marquette University High School and DSHA High School; MORE Robotics, a community team based at St. Thomas More High School; and three Wauwatosa East BattleBots teams.

“One of the things we like most about these robotics challenges is the experience students gain during their involvement. They’ll create, innovate, build and compete. They’ll grow by strengthening their real-world engineering know-how. And they’ll learn what it takes to work with a team to develop something of value. These are the types of people that colleges want to enroll and our clients want to employ,” says Tim Newholm, a firm founder and current president. “We love being part of that.”

FIRST Robotics and BattleBot competitions were created to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people and are designed to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering. Sponsorship dollars are used for building robots and for competition.

“Jobs of the 21st century are calling for science-, technology-, engineering- and math-capable students,” Newholm says. “The next generation of problem-solvers, innovators, inventors and critical thinkers will be the drivers of our nation’s growth. We want these young people to realize the importance of developing and protecting ideas now so they remain productive and innovative into the future.”