| Founder(s) | Dean Kamen |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Location | Manchester, NH |
| Key people | Dean Kamen, Founder Walt Havenstein, Chairman of the Board Jon Dudas, President Woodie Flowers, National Adviser |
| Revenue | $34,686,987[1] |
| Volunteers | 100,000 |
| Members | 212,000 students 17,634 robots 57,376 mentors 19,134 teams 34,000 event volunteers[2] |
| Motto | "To create a world where science and technology are celebrated... where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes" |
| Website | www.usfirst.org |
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology[3]) is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 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.[4]
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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. Terms frequently applied to this ethos are Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition; terms coined by Woodie Flowers and Kamen that support respect towards one's competitors and integrity in one's actions.[5] Coopertition is patented under US Patent 7,507,169 by Dean Kamen.[6]
The first and highest scale program developed through FIRST is the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), which is designed to inspire high school students to become engineers by giving them real world experience working with engineers to develop a robot. The inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition was held in 1992 in the Manchester Memorial High School gymnasium.[7] As of 2009[update], over 3,000 high school teams totaling over 46,000 students from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom,[2] 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 about 150 lb (68 kg), including batteries and bumpers, 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 (except when that Saturday falls on January 1 or 2), and the teams are given six weeks to construct a robot that can accomplish the game's tasks.[8]
In 2011, teams participated in 48 regional and district competitions[9][10] throughout March in an effort to qualify for the FIRST Championship in St. Louis in April. Previous years' Championships have been held in Atlanta, Georgia, Houston, Texas and at Walt Disney World's Epcot.[11] On October 7, 2009, FIRST announced that the Championship Event will be held in St. Louis, Missouri for 2011 through 2013.[12] Each year the FIRST Robotics Competition has scholarships for the participants in the program. In 2011 there are over $14 million worth of scholarships from more than 128 colleges and universities, associations, and corporations.
In 1998, the FIRST LEGO League (FLL), a program similar to the FIRST Robotics Competition, was formed. It is aimed at 9 to 14-year-old students and utilizes LEGO Mindstorms sets (NXT or RCX) to build palm-sized LEGO robots, which are then programmed using either the ROBOLAB software (RCX-based systems) or Mindstorms NXT software (for NXT-based systems) to autonomously compete against other teams.[13] The ROBOLAB software is based on National Instruments' LabVIEW industrial control engineering software. The combination of interchangeable LEGO parts, computer 'bricks', sensors, and the aforementioned software, provide preteens and teenagers with the capability to build reasonably complex models of real-life robotic systems. This competition also utilizes a research element that is themed with each year's game, and deals with a real-world situation for students to learn about through the season. The simplistic nature of its games, its relatively low team startup costs, and its association with the Lego Group mean that it is the most extensive of all FIRST competitions, despite a lower profile and fewer sponsors than FTC or FRC. In 2009, 14,725 teams from 56 countries participated in local, regional, national, and international competitions, compared with around 1,600 teams in roughly 10 countries for FRC.[14][15]
The Junior FIRST LEGO League is a variation of the FIRST LEGO League, aimed towards elementary school children, in which kids ages 5 to 8 build LEGO models dealing with that year's FLL challenge. At least one part of a model has a moving component. The teams participate in exhibitions around the country, where they demonstrate and explain their models and research for award opportunities.
The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC), is a mid-level robotics competition announced by FIRST on March 22, 2005. According to FIRST, this competition was designed to be a more accessible and affordable option for schools. FIRST has also said that the FTC program was created for those of an intermediate skill level. FIRST Tech Challenge robots are approximately one-third the scale of their FRC counterparts. The FTC competition is meant to provide a transition for students from the FLL competition to the FRC competition. FTC was developed for the Vex Robotics Design System, which is available commercially.[16]
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.[17][18] Competitions were held around the United States, Canada, and Mexico.[19]
For the 2008-2009 FTC season, a new kit was introduced, as FIRST moved away from the VEX platform and worked with several different vendors to create a custom kit and control system for FTC known as Tetrix. Based around the LEGO Mindstorms NXT "brain" and including secondary specialized controllers to overcome the limitations of the NXT, teams use a Bluetooth link between the NXT and a laptop running FTC driver station software. A team's drivers then use either one or two USB gamepads to control their robots.
FIRST itself is a self-supporting organization; however, individual teams almost universally rely on outside funding sources. It also takes significant outside funds to run regional events and the FIRST Championship. In 2010, FIRST was a recipient of a Google Project 10^100 grant.[20]
Teams may request that team members, whether mentors or students, contribute to the costs of running a team. For example, members may pay a fee or donate tools and facilities.
Teams frequently give other teams support. This may mean providing funds, tools, or facilities. Gracious professionalism and coopertition are core tenets of the FIRST philosophy.
The most common method of monetary and resource sponsorship teams comes through the community surrounding the team. Since the majority of teams are based around a school or a school district, schools often provide the infrastructure needed to run a team. Local governments and individual citizens may provide funds and other support to teams. Local universities and colleges often give significant funds to teams.
Corporate donations and grants usually provide the majority of a mature team's funds. Major donors include BAE Systems, Google, Raytheon, and National Instruments.
Each year during his speech at the kickoff event, founder Dean Kamen gives the student participants a homework assignment. It often involves spreading the word about FIRST in various ways, such as increasing attendance at regionals (2005),[21] mentoring rookie teams, making sure that FIRST-specific scholarships are applied for (2004),[22] and researching the capabilities of motors and disseminating that information to other teams (2006).[23] In 2007, Dean's homework was for each team to contact their government officials (e.g. mayors, legislators, governors, federal officials) and invite them to a FIRST regional or the championship to expose them to the competition and increase the level of political awareness of FIRST. In 2008, it was to inform the media more about FIRST. In 2009, the homework was for each team to have all students, mentors, and other persons involved with their team (past or present) register with FIRST.[24] One goal of this registration process was to provide FIRST with data to demonstrate that many people had benefited from their experiences in FIRST robotics and to encourage more funding of robotics-related events.
At the World Championship in Atlanta, speakers have included former President of the United States George Herbert Walker Bush in 2008, and United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2010. In 2010, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Jon Dudas was selected to be the President of FIRST.[25]
FIRST has received the attention of politicians in Canada as well. Ontario MPP Bob Delaney made remarks in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario regarding his experience at an FRC competition.[26]
NASA, through its Robotics Alliance Project, is a major supporter of FIRST.
Note: All years indicate the year that the championship for that game was held.
| 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 | |
| 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 | Lunacy | Climate Connections | Face Off |
| 2010 | Breakaway | Smart Move | Hot Shot! |
| 2011 | Logo Motion | Body Forward | Get Over It! |
| 2012 | - | Food Factor | Bowled Over! |
| Book: FIRST | |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
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