Waterford - Surely this was one event that couldn't be derailed by technical difficulties.

Saturday morning, five teams from local high schools participating in the international FIRST robotics competition gathered at the training building at Millstone Power Station. A kickoff event was planned - a live broadcast from the FIRST headquarters in Manchester, N.H., to all the teams worldwide to announce this year's challenge.

But when access to Millstone's Internet server was unexpectedly denied, and repeated attempts to correct the problem failed, organizers turned for help to the roomful of mentor engineers and students who choose to spend their free time building a robot.

"Does anyone have a laptop and a cell phone card?" Keith Deslands, supervisor of nuclear engineering at Millstone and senior mentor for FIRST, called out to the 120 or so mentors and students. The teams came from Lyme-Old Lyme High School, Robert E. Fitch Senior High School in Groton, Ledyard High School, Bacon Academy in Colchester and Guilford High School.

Within a few minutes, by connecting the borrowed laptop through the borrowed cell phone card to the Internet, then logging on to the broadcast, then hooking the laptop to the projector so the broadcast could be seen on the large screen, and sending the sound through the laptop speakers, the students were watching the kickoff event.

They tuned in in time to hear Will.I.Am, member of the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas, tell the thousands of FIRST students he admires their brains and willingness to take on a challenge.

"I'm inspired by you guys," he said. "You guys are cool. I want you to know you guys are cool."

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and FIRST founder, followed Will.I.Am, emphasizing that the purpose is much bigger than building a robot that can compete against other robots. FIRST will culminate this year with a national contest in St. Louis in April.

"The robot is merely a vehicle - no pun intended," said Kamen. "We hope what you're building here is self-confidence, self-respect and relationships with serious adults."

He noted that while FIRST has been around for two decades, it has lately begun to enjoy the attention he believes it has long deserved for exciting youth about science and technology and fostering positive life skills and qualities. In October, President Barack Obama visited with three of the 2010 winning FIRST teams, and a nonfiction book about a teacher and his FIRST team, "The New Cool," is scheduled for release in March.

Brian Chidley, the Fitch teacher who is mentor to that school's 30-member team, said the teams have six weeks and three days to build a robot ready for the next tier of the challenge, competing in an arena in a sports-like game against other team's robots. A few of his team members were dispatched to the Connecticut pick-up site for the parts kits, and the entire team would begin work this morning at 10, Chidley said, starting an intensive meeting schedule.

"It's essentially every day," he said.

Tyler Qualley, a Fitch senior in his second year with FIRST, said last year's competition was "the experience of a lifetime."

Enya Horler, a Ledyard High sophomore, participated in FIRST as a middle schooler and as a freshman.

"I got a sense of usefulness and self-accomplishment," she said. "I learned how to come up with things, and improvise with the things you have."

www.usfirst.org