For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
- The Bomb Squad with Dean Kamen
“To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.”
Dean Kamen, Founder
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is a program aimed at introducing high-school students to the world of science and technology through a fast-paced robotics competition.
For the 2008-2009 season, FIRST projects that approximately 196,000 students, 17,589 teams, 53,000 mentors, and 32,000 event volunteers from around the world will be involved in FIRST Robotics Competiton, FIRST Tech Challenge, and FIRST LEGO League. During the 2009 season there will be 42,100 high-school students from 48 states and 10 other countries involved in FRC alone.
Along the way, students learn how to work with engineering, programming, and advanced computer software concepts with the help of mentors. Students get a hands-on perspective of the engineering field and workplace. Not only do students gain important knowledge about engineering, they also learn how to work with fellow team members and mentors.
FIRST incorporates more than just engineering into its programs, it also stresses the importance of team management, safety, communications, and gracious professionalism. By showing students how to use these skills along side engineering and programming, FIRST is helping students understand the roles that communications, team management, safety, and gracious professionalism play in being a successful team.
The FIRST Robotics Competition season begins during the first week of January. Teams all across the world watch a live telecast presented by the FIRST founders, who reveal that year’s challenge. The teams have six weeks to design, fabricate, and program their robot using a “kit of parts”. At the end of the six weeks, the robot must be shipped to the team’s first regional competition.
The competitions have all of the excitement of a sporting event, but a person can also find a level of coorperation among the teams that isn’t usual at a sporting event. Teams want each other to succeed and are more than willing to help their fellow teams out. They are friendly, helpful, and encouraging to all of their opponents.
More than ever, it is important for students to experience how exciting and fullfilling the world of science and technology can be, and FIRST is giving the students a once in a lifetime opportunity to become the people that can truly change the world.
For more detailed information about FIRST, go to:
http://www.usfirst.org/who/default.aspx?id=34
