About FIRST

FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”, and is a multinational, non-profit organization. It was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. Kamen and other FIRST supporters aspire to make math, science, engineering, and technology more appealing to kids in the way that sports are today. Each year the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FIRST Lego League/Junior FIRST Lego League (FLL and Jr. FLL), and FIRST Tech. Challenge (FTC), are held to promote science and engineering to kids around the world.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting multinational competition held yearly. It teams professional engineers and young students together in order to provide a solution to the given problem each year. The program promotes cooperation between everyone in it, and is intensely competitive while maintaining the concept of Gracious Professionalism. Each team designs, builds, and programs a robot capable of performing the specified task at the various competitions held around the world. This year, the competition has reached 132,000 high school students on 1,300 teams over 30 competitions, ranging from Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The FIRST Lego League also reached thousands of middle-school aged students while the Jr. FIRST Lego League attracted students in Kindergarten through grade three.

FIRST is an inspirational experience that changes the lives of people who get involved in it. It provides high-school students with a chance to work with professional engineers and learn how to deal with real life situations. The ideals behind engineering and technology are shown through it and give students a chance to learn and develop skills. The end-results of it include lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines.