What is FIRST?
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that operates to give experiences in STEM career building for kids ages 5 to 18. FIRST has four levels of programs, the biggest level being FRC, FIRST Robotics Competition. FRC teams get together and use real-life skills to build a robot with a budget, weight limit, restrictions in sizes and parts, and within six weeks, working with real life engineers and teachers to mentor the team.
Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, founded FIRST in 1989, starting FRC in 1992 with Woodie Flowers expressing goals to developing ways to inspire students in STEM career fields, both who
have separate awards named after them that parts of the teams can win. They try to focus on having teams outreaching to their communities to spread the word of FIRST and to inspire young minds to consider engineering, science, technology, and math as a possible career choice. Member of the Black Eyed Peas Will. I. Am has joined with Kamen to help spread the word of FIRST as "The hardest fun you'll ever have."
As a Fundraiser initiative for FIRST teams, FIRST has paired up with CREE, Inc. to create an efficient, energy saving light bulb. Learn more about them on the FIRST Green e-watt saver page.
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Other Parts of FIRST
Previously known as FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC) that started in 2005 for students in 7th grade to 12th grade. At approximately one third the size of FRC, they build mini robots at an intermediate level with autonomous and teleop periods in matches.
Similar to FRC and FTC, Lego League was started in 1998 for 4th to 8th graders. Using ROBOLAB software teams build palm-sized robots to perform similar tasks to real life robots.
Jr. FLL - Junior FIRST Lego League
For students ages 5-8, Junior Lego League offers a variation of that year's FLL game with at least one moving part. Teams also research and create a "Show Me" poster explaining the challenge and their Lego robot.
FIRST Competitions
Teams will compete after bagging their robots once the six week build season that starts in January is finished. Teams compete at a Regional or District level where teams come around from different states over a weekend. All over the country Regional events will continue in the following weeks after build season ends. Regionals close to Jaguar Robotics are the Greater Kansas City, Arkansas, Iowa, Midwest, Oklahoma City, and Colorado Regionals.
On the last two weekends of April, the best of each Regional, District, and State competitions gather to the ultimate robotics weekend. Winners of various awards and the competition then go to compete in Houston, TX or Detroit, MI for the International Championships.
Starting in 2017, FIRST has split up the previous one, 600 Team, Championship to two, 400 Team, Championships to allow for more teams to experience this opportunity.
At both Houston and Detroit, the 400 teams are divided to six fields of approximately 65 teams. The fields are named after some of history's best STEM leaders. Such as: Carver, Turing, Archimedes, Tesla, Galileo, Roebling, Carson, Darwin, Hopper, Newton, Curie, and Daly.
They will compete and be ranked the same as they would at a lower level of competition, and precede through elimination matches the same. Separate divisions will go against each other on the main field, Einstein, and the winners will proceed to the final matches where the Champion winner will come from.
Teams from all over the world go, countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom are represented by their teams.