The FIRST Foundation

FIRST stands for For Interest and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST is a non-profit organization that is working to make math and science as exciting and important to students as sports. FIRST began its robotics competition in 1992. Since then, it has also created a science museum, FIRST Place, located in New Hampshire, and begun a pilot Junior Robotics LEGO competition. For more information on FIRST, you can visit their Web page.

The FIRST Robotics Competition

In 1992, the FIRST robotics competition was founded. FIRST's competition has grown to become an international phenomena that encourages students, teamed with local businesses, to design and create a robot. Each year the competition is different, but from year to year some things remain the same.

The robot is placed on a playing field with two other robots for a two minute match. At the end of the match, the team with the most points win. Last year the number of points was determined by the number of balls on rails and in the central goal. In addition to the robots, every team is also allowed to have a human player that is off of the playing field, but is allowed to interact with the robot and throw balls onto the field.

Robots generally must be under 120 pounds and fit in a 3' x 3' x 4' box. However, the robots normally must be able to expand. Last year's robot reached a towering height of 12' when fully extended.

The registration cost is $4,000 per competition, or a total of $8,000 to attend regional and world competitions. Our regional competition, the Mid-Atlantic Competition, is held at Rutger's University in New Jersey. The world competition is held in Walt Disney World, Florida. FIRST Competitions attract national press like ESPN and CNN.

In addition to teaching the student's about science and technology in a fun way, FIRST is a valuable experience to train the workforce of tomorrow. In many ways, FIRST provides "real world" experiences for students. Students learn how to manage a project. The Team must stay in a budget and in stringent time constraints (the whole project takes six weeks). The Team learns how important communication and teamwork truly are.

The Team recieves a lot of local news coverage and recognition, so students really see the fruits of their effort. Many FIRST Team members leave with not only better knowledge of how to survive in the workplace and boosted self-cofidence, but also the feeling like they have contributed something to a greater cause.