FIRST

From Combat Robot

FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 in order to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. The organization is the foundation for the FIRST Robotics Competition, the FIRST LEGO League, and the FIRST Vex Challenge competitions.

FIRST Robotics Competition

The original program developed through FIRST was the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), which is designed to inspire high school students to become engineers by giving them real world experience working with professional engineers to develop a robot. The inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition was held in 1992 in the Manchester Memorial High School gymnasium. As of 2007, over 1300 high school teams totaling over 32,500 students from Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, and more compete in the annual competition. The competition challenge theme changes each year, and the teams cannot reuse assemblies created for previous robots. The robots weigh around 120 pounds (depending on the current year's rules). The kit issued to each team contains a base set of parts. Details of the game are released at the beginning of January, and the teams are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot that can accomplish the game's tasks. In 2007, teams competed in 37 regional competitions throughout March in an effort to qualify for the FIRST Championship in Atlanta, Georgia in April. Previous Championships have been held in Houston, Texas and at Walt Disney World's Epcot center.