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FIRST Quotes
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"While FIRST is about science, math, technology and engineering, it is
also about innovation. It is about learning to dream and daring to invent
that dream and make that dream come true. The challenges of the future
demand these skills."
~Governor Lynch (NH)
"We are in a race between knowledge and catastrophe. If we keep track of
what is important, never lower our standards or forget why we are here, we
have the ability to determine the fate of the world."
~Dean Kamen, Founder of FIRST; President, DEKA Research and Development
"FIRST is a network of Gracious Professionals, passionately developing
compassionate leaders from the youth of the world that will solve our
global challenges by applying technology and scientific solutions to the
hard problems humanity has yet to solve."
~Dr. Woodie Flowers, FIRST National Advisor and Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, MIT
"FIRST is the only robotics program to have experienced mentors sitting
beside the children of our world showing them how professionals think,
learn, make appropriate decisions, and respond to change in a challenging,
team-oriented, dynamic environment."
~Dave Lavery, Program Executive for Solar System Exploration, NASA
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Related Organizations
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AndyMark Inc
AndyMark invents, designs, and sells components for robotics and mobility applications.
Innovation FIRST
Suppliers of educational robot kits and components as well as components for FIRST robotics teams.
NASA Robotics
A NASA initiative which hopes to increase public support for the construction of robots for the use of extraterrestrial exploration.
Boston FIRST
The largest robotics competition in Boston and the largest regional competition in FIRST history -- In 2010, over 6000 attendees watched more than 1000 high school students competing
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What's FIRST?
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What is FIRST Robotics?
FIRST robotics is an organization that aims to inspire students to get into technology and engineering fields. Formally "For Inspiration of Science and Technology," it was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers. Three years later, in 1992, the initial game "Maize Craze" was played. There were 28 teams that took part - but it was a solid start. Since then, FIRST has grown exponentially; to date there are over 19,000 teams involved with the different FIRST programs. Dean Kamen's vision was "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," and to an extent, he has succeeded. |
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FIRST is the foundation for the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Lego League, Junior FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Place; each of which are intended to focus on different age groups. Team 61 is involved in the FRC program, which is one of the branches intended for high school students, and where larger robots are built. FTC being the other, it entails somewhat smaller robots that do equally complex tasks. The FIRST Lego League is the branch dedicated to the grades 4-8, where small LEGO-based robots are made to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. Junior FIRST Lego League is aimed for K-3, and entails many of the same challenges of FLL, except to a lesser difficulty level. FIRST Place is a facility in Manchester, NH where educational programs are held for anybody over 6 years old. |
FIRST promotes certain values in the contenders of their competitions. Every team is highly encouraged take part in Coopertition™ and Gracious Professionalism™. As defined by Woodie Flowers, Gracious Professionalism is part of the ethos of FIRST that encourages fierce competition while treating everybody with respect. Coopertition is cooperating during copetition in order to learn as much as possible.
We're proud to be a pioneer of the FRC program, joining just 3 years after the first game was held. FRC has an international reach, with teams from Brazil, Canada, The Netherlands, Isreal, The United States, The United Kingdom, and Mexico. At the beginning of every year, each of the over 1,800 teams are introduced to a new game and are given six weeks to build a robot around it. Typically there are strict regulations on the robot – no robot can cost more than $3,500, weigh more than 120 pounds, or exceed varying the size limitations.
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