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, FIRST LEGO League, Junior FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Tech Challenge competitions.
FIRST also operates FIRST Place, a research facility at FIRST Headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire where it holds educational programs and day camps for students and teachers.
FIRST seeks to promote a philosophy of teamwork and collaboration among engineers and encourages competing teams to remain friendly, helping each other out when necessary. The term frequently applied to this ethos is "gracious professionalism," a term coined by Woodie Flowers which supports respect towards one's competitors and integrity in one's actions.
The first 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 2008, over 1500 high school teams totaling over 37,000 students from Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, and more compete in the annual competition. The competition challenge changes each year, and the teams can only reuse certain components from previous years. The robots weigh around , depending on that year's rules. The kit issued to each team contains a base set of parts. Registration and the kit of parts together cost about US$6000. In addition to that, teams are allowed to spend another $3500 on their robot. The purpose of this rule is to lessen the influence of money on teams' competitiveness. Details of the game are released on the first Saturday in January, and the teams are given six weeks to construct a robot that can accomplish the game's tasks. In 2008, teams participated in 41 regional competitions throughout March in an effort to qualify for the FIRST Championship in Atlanta, Georgia in April. Previous years' Championships have been held in Houston, Texas and at Walt Disney World's Epcot.. Each year the First Robotics Competition has scholarships for the participants in the program. In 2008 there was $9.8 million worth of scholarships from 108 colleges and universities, associations, and corporations.
The 2005 FVC pilot season featured a demonstration of the FIRST Vex Challenge using a 1/3 linear scale mock-up of the 2004 FRC Competition, FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar. For their 2005-2006 Pilot Season, FVC teams played the Half-Pipe Hustle game using racquet balls and ramps.
For the 2006-2007 FTC Season, the FIRST Tech Challenge teams competed in the Hangin'-A-Round challenge using softballs, rotating platforms, a hanging bar, and a larger 'Atlas' ball which is significantly larger than most Vex robots and harder to manipulate. Competitions were held around the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The efforts to attract political attention to FIRST in 2007 were quite successful, with visits to regional including the US Secretary of Commerce, 4 US Senators, 8 members of Congress, 4 state governors, 7 mayors, and a deputy Prime Minister. Following the FIRST Championship Event in Atlanta in April, the championship winners of the FRC (#365), FTC (#801), and FLL competitions were invited to the White House to demonstrate their robots to President Bush and members of Congress. Further, FIRST President Paul Gudonis was invited to testify before the Congressional Committee on Education and Labor about FIRST's achievements and goals.
In 2008, former President of the United States George Herbert Walker Bush spoke at the World Championship in Atlanta.
| Year | FRC | FLL | FTC |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Maize Craze | ||
| 1993 | Rug Rage | ||
| 1994 | Tower Power | ||
| 1995 | Ramp 'n Roll | ||
| 1996 | Hexagon Havoc | ||
| 1997 | Toroid Terror | ||
| 1998 | Ladder Logic | ||
| 1999 | Double Trouble | Pilot Year | |
| 2000 | Co-Opertition FIRST | FIRST Contact | |
| 2001 | Diabolical Dynamics | Volcanic Panic | |
| 2002 | Zone Zeal | Arctic Impact | |
| 2003 | Stack Attack | City Sights | |
| 2004 | FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar | Mission Mars | |
| 2005 | Triple Play | No Limits | Demonstration |
| 2006 | Aim High | Ocean Odyssey | Pilot Year: Half-Pipe Hustle |
| 2007 | Rack 'n Roll | Nano Quest | Hangin'-A-Round |
| 2008 | FIRST Overdrive | Power Puzzle | Quad Quandary |
| 2009 | Climate Connections | Face Off |
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