Candice S. Miller: “since the time of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, the people from the great State of Michigan have been at the forefront…”

“since the time of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, the people from the great State of Michigan have been at the forefront of technical innovation, and that tradition continues today, this time led by the Thunder Chickens. And you might ask, who are the Thunder Chickens? Well, they're a great group of students from the Utica Community Schools in my district who were part of a winning team at the First National Robotics Championship held this past weekend at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Out of 340 competitors, the Thunder Chickens team built a robot that won a race, ran around a track, knocked plastic balls off a 6-foot overpass, picked the balls up and threw them back over an overpass. This was a robot that they designed. The Thunder Chickens victory proves once again that the innovative spirit is in the State of Michigan. My congratulations to the mentor, the team's lead engineer, and to the entire team for a job well done. And I have no doubt that in the future we will see some of these Thunder Chickens grow up to be engineers who invent the fuel efficient vehicles of the future. So when you think of Michigan innovators in the future, remember Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, and now think of the Thunder Chickens from Utica Community Schools.”