The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting and intense multinational competition that pairs together both professionals of various technical fields and young high school students to solve an engineering design problem in a fundamental and competitive way. The program in itself is a life-changing and career-model building experience; it's just a whole lot of fun for everyone. The competitions that take place are high-tech spectator sporting events, the end results to an agonizing six weeks of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project time lines, and strict deadlines.

About FIRST

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a multinational non-profit organization that aspires to transform an entire culture, making science, mathematics, engineering, and technology as cool for kids as sports are today.

FIRST was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. FIRST operates the FIRST Robotics Competition in which teams of high school students, sponsored and assisted by local companies and volunteers, design, assemble, and test a robot capable of performing a specified task in competition with other teams nationwide. FIRST also runs the FIRST LEGO League, for children of ages nine through fourteen years old, and FIRST Place , an innovative science and technology center, including a hands-on children's science museum.

FIRST was founded on partnerships with businesses, educational institutions and the government. Many generous Fortune 500 companies provide funding, in-kind donations and volunteers to support the program.

The key to the success of FIRST is in the work of over 25,000 volunteer mentors, professional engineers, teachers, and other adults all working together with students across the country. In addition to the thousands of volunteer team mentors, FIRST competitions and other events were organized and staffed by over 14,000 event and committee volunteers. Through these volunteers, FIRST programs have engaged over 70,000 young people during the last year. FIRST programs are growing rapidly in the United States and Canada, and demand is accelerating in other countries.

About the FIRST Robotics Competition

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter, founded the FIRST Robotics Competition in 1992. Twenty-eight teams competed in the first competition, which was held on a 14' x 14' square field in a high school gym in New Hampshire. Today in FIRST over eight hundred teams participate in more than twenty-three Regional competitions and Championships held all across the globe.

Each January, a new competition is unveiled which has a assortment of tasks each team may accomplish for a variety of point values. From the date of the unveiling, teams will have a total of six weeks to dream, design, construct, and analyze a 120 pound, 28" x 38" x 60" sized robot (Specifications vary by year).

All of the students who participate in FIRST agree that the program has a life-changing impact. The amount of technical knowledge students acquire from the program is immense, ranging from engineering, to machining, to programming, and so on. However, of possibly an even greater value, FIRST teaches life skills, students learn cooperation, self-confidence, and organization. And the unique nature of FIRST encourages and fosters relationships between the engineering and industrial world and the future work force. Numerous amounts of generous companies sponsor teams and mentors pass on their knowledge and advice to the next generation of eager minds. FIRST feeds the fire within students; it motivates them with unparalleled success to pursue their possibilities in the technological, scientific, and engineering fields.