•  The Hitchhikers have qualified for the FIRST World Championships held in St. Louis on April 26 -28, after winning the S.C. Regional. The team also competed in the N.C. Regional with over 36 N.C. teams in Raleigh at Dorton Arena on April 5-7.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual competition that challenges high school students working alongside professional mentors to design and build a robot of their own. At the 2012 tournament, teams compete in “Rebound Rumble,” a robotics game played between two alliances of three teams each. Each alliance competes by trying to score as many of the basketballs in the hoops as possible during the 2-minute, 15-second match. Balls scored in higher hoops score teams more points. Team Alliances are awarded bonus points if they are balanced on bridges at the end of the match.

The Hitchhikers are a veteran second-year team, consisting of 24 high school students from the Triangle area. Sponsors including ASME, BASF, Enthalpy, Gregory Poole Equipment, J.C. Penney, L6 Technologies, Pentair, Research Triangle Park, Teradata,Time Warner Cable, Triangle Glides and Turnbull Dentistry.

•  Melissa Dewey Brumback has again been named by Super Lawyers magazine as Rising Stars in North Carolina.

Less than 2.5 percent of eligible lawyers in the state are named Rising Stars each year. Brumback was selected for her practice in construction litigation for the second year in a row.

She is partner in the law firm of Ragsdale Liggett PLLC in Raleigh and serves as president on the board of directors for R.L. Mace Universal Design Institute in Chapel Hill, where she’s been on the board for four years.