There are few things in teenage geekdom that produces the amount of hysteria
and glee than winning a science, math or any type of engineering
competition and there is one which all aspiring scientists, inventors
and engineers wish to conquer. The king of all robotics competitions
still remains Dean Kamen’s FIRST competition. First, standing for For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, was first held in
1992 as a local program. The competition it is now a multinational
program with teams from around the globe competing. It teams students
and professionals to solve engineering design problems. The teams have
six weeks to build a robot to solve from a common kit of parts that is
provided by the FIRST competition.
The
FIRST competition began in 1992 when 28 teams competed in a New
Hampshire high school gym. It has now grown to include five separate
programs for various ages groups: the original FIRST Robotics
Competition which is for high school students. The FIRST Tech Challenge,
where high school students build robots using a modular robotics
platform; the FIRST Lego League, where robots are built using Lego
mindstorms by 9-14 year olds; and the FIRST Lego League where 6 to 9
year olds design and construct a model using Lego bricks and moving
parts.
In
2011 it’s projected that the FIRST competition will grow to 248,000
students, over 22,000 teams, over 20,000 robots, over 66,000 adult
mentors and over 33,000 volunteers. The 2011 FIRST competition is slated
to have over $14 million available in the form of thousands of college
scholarships. The FIRST competition is financially supported by over
3,500 professional, education institutions as well as corporations and
individuals.
The
main goal of the FIRST program is to encourage students to gain an
interest and appreciation for robotics, science and technology in
general. The culmination is the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO, on
April 27-30, 2011.