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| Founded | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Dean Kamen,Woodie Flowers |
| Type | 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity |
| 22-2990908 | |
| Headquarters | Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Members |
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Key people |
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| Revenue | $86,489,037 (2024)[1] |
| Employees | 210 (2022)[2] |
| Website | www |
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is aninternational youth organization that operates theFIRST Robotics Competition,FIRST Tech Challenge,FIRST Lego League Challenge,FIRST Lego League Explore, andFIRST Lego League Discover competitions.[4] Founded byDean Kamen andWoodie Flowers in 1989, its expressed goal is to develop ways to inspire students inengineering andtechnology fields. Its philosophy is expressed by the organization asCoopertition andGracious Professionalism.FIRST also operatesFIRST Place, a research facility atFIRST headquarters inManchester, New Hampshire, where it holds educational programs and day camps for students and teachers.[5]
FIRST operates as a non-profit public charity corporation. It licenses qualified teams, usually affiliated with schools or other youth organizations, to participate in its competitions. The teams in turn pay a fee toFIRST; these fees, the majority of which are redistributed to pay for teams' kit of parts and other services, comprise the majority of revenue ofFIRST.[6] The supreme body ofFIRST is itsboard of directors, which includes corporate executives and former government officials.FIRST also has an executive advisory board and several senior advisors; these advisors include engineers, involved volunteers, and other senior organizers. Day-to-day operations are run by asenior management team, consisting of a CEO and a variety of vice presidents and additional officers for a total of 10 individuals.[7]
The first and highest-scale program developed throughFIRST is theFIRST Robotics Competition, which is designed to inspirehigh school students to become engineers by giving them real world experience working with engineers to develop a robot. The inauguralFIRST Robotics Competition was held in 1992 in theManchester Memorial High Schoolgymnasium.[8] As of 2019[update], over 3,700 high school teams totaling over 46,000 students from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Turkey, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom,[3] and more compete in the annual competition, with more than 9000 teams (active and inactive) in existence.
The competition challenge changes each year, and the teams can reuse only certain components from previous years. The robots have maximum weight and size, usually around 125 pounds (57 kg) and 25 by 25 inches. The kit issued to each team contains a base set of parts. Registration and the kit of parts together cost aboutUS$6,000. In addition to that, teams are allowed to spend another $5,500 on their robot.[citation needed] The purpose of this rule is to lessen the influence of money on teams' competitiveness. Details of the game have been released on the first Saturday in January (except when that Saturday falls on January 1 or 2), and the teams have been given six weeks to construct a robot that can accomplish the game's tasks.
In 2011, teams participated in 48 regional and district competitions[9][10] throughout March in an effort to qualify for theFIRST Championship in St. Louis in April. Previous years' Championships have been held inAtlanta, Georgia,Houston, Texas and atWalt Disney World'sEpcot.[11] On October 7, 2009,FIRST announced that the Championship Event will be held inSt. Louis, Missouri for 2011 through 2013.[12]Each year theFIRST Robotics Competition has scholarships for the participants in the program. In 2011, there were over $14 million worth of scholarships from more than 128 colleges and universities, associations, and corporations.[citation needed]
The district competition system was introduced in Michigan and as of 2017 has expanded to include districts in the Pacific Northwest, the Mid-Atlantic, the Washington DC area, New England, Georgia, North Carolina, Ontario, and Israel. When they were created in 2017, the Ontario and Israel districts became the first districts outside of the United States. The district competition system changed the traditional "regional" events by allowing teams to compete in multiple smaller events and using an associated ranking algorithm to determine which teams would advance to the next level of the competition. In general, there have been pushes to move more regions to the districts system; California, Texas, and New York have especially been pushed to move to the district system.
TheFIRST Tech Challenge, originallyFIRST Vex Challenge, is a mid-level robotics competition announced byFIRST on March 22, 2005. According toFIRST, this competition was designed to be a more accessible and affordable option for schools.FIRST has also said that theFIRST Tech Challenge program was created for those of an intermediate skill level.FIRST Tech Challenge robots are approximately one-third the scale of theirFIRST Robotics Competition counterparts. TheFIRST Tech Challenge is meant to provide a transition for students from theFIRSTLEGO League Challenge competition to theFIRST Robotics Competition.FIRST Tech Challenge was developed for the Vex Robotics Design System, which is available commercially.[13]
The 2005 FVC pilot season featured a demonstration of the FIRST Vex Challenge using a 1/3 linear scale mock-up of the 2004FIRST Robotics Competition,FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar. For their 2005–2006 Pilot Season, FVC teams played theHalf-Pipe Hustle game using racquet balls and ramps. For the 2006–2007FIRST Tech Challenge season, the teams competed in theHangin'-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.[14][15] Competitions were held around the United States, Canada, and Mexico.[16]
For the 2008–2009FIRST Tech Challenge season, a new kit was introduced, asFIRST moved away from the VEX platform and worked with several different vendors to create a custom kit and control system forFIRST Tech Challenge known asTETRIX. 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 runningFIRST Tech Challenge driver station software. A team's drivers then use either one or two USB gamepads to control their robots. For the 2015–2016FIRST Tech Challenge season, in a partnership withQualcomm, the LEGO Mindstorms NXT was replaced as the "brain" of the robot by an android device that communicates to a separate "driver station" android device via WiFi Direct. In addition, students were allowed to use either MIT App Inventor or Android Studio (Java language) to program their robots.
In 1998, theFIRST LEGO League Challenge (formerly known asFIRST LEGO League), a program similar to theFIRST Robotics Competition was formed. It is aimed at 9 to 14-year-old students and utilizesLEGO Mindstorms sets (EV3, NXT, RCX) to build palm-sized LEGO robots, which are then programmed using either the ROBOLAB software (RCX-based systems) or Mindstorms NXT or EV3 software (for NXT or EV3-based systems respectively) to autonomously compete against other teams.[17] The ROBOLAB software is based onNational 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 simple models of real-life robotic systems.[18] 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. In 2020, the program was re-branded toFIRST LEGO League Challenge.
The simplistic nature of its games, its relatively low team startup costs, and its association with theLEGO Group mean that it is the most extensive of allFIRST competitions, despite a lower profile and fewer sponsors thanFIRST Tech Challenge orFIRST Robotics Competition. 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 forFIRST Robotics Competition.[19][20]
FIRST LEGO League Explore (formerly known asFIRST LEGO League Jr.) is a variation of theFIRST LEGO League Challenge, aimed towards elementary school children, in which kids ages 5 to 8 build LEGO models dealing with that year's 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.
Unveiled in 2019,FIRST LEGO League Discover is designed for children ages 4 to 6 and centers on a playful introduction to STEM concepts and ideas. Teams useLEGO Duplo kits to complete each year's challenge and present their models at exhibitions similar to those found inFIRST LEGO League Explore.[21]
TheFIRST Championship is an annual event where the top 600FRC teams, 160FTC teams, and 168FLL teams from around the globe compete to form the 1st-place alliance for that year's challenge.[22] In the past theFIRST Championship was held in St. Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; and Houston, Texas. From 2018 through 2020, theFIRST Championship was held in Detroit, Michigan, and Houston, Texas.[23] At the 2014 Championship,FIRST announced changes to the 2015 structure that will bring a more "Olympic Village" feeling, and involves a rearrangement of the programs around the city.
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FIRST itself is a self-supporting organization; however, individual teams rely on outside funding sources. It also takes significant outside funds to run regional events and theFIRST Championship. In 2010,FIRST was a recipient of aGoogle Project 10^100 grant.[24]
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, facilities, or mentorship.Gracious professionalism andCoopertition are core tenets of theFIRST 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 includeBAE Systems,Google,Raytheon,Apple Inc.,NASA andNational 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 aboutFIRST in various ways, such as increasing attendance at regionals (2005),[25] mentoring rookie teams, making sure thatFIRST-specific scholarships are applied for (2004),[26] and researching the capabilities of motors and disseminating that information to other teams (2006).[27] 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 aFIRST regional or the championship to expose them to the competition and increase the level of political awareness ofFIRST. In 2008, it was to inform the media more aboutFIRST. In 2009, the homework was for each team to have all students, mentors, and other persons involved with their team (past or present) register withFIRST.[28] One goal of this registration process was to provideFIRST with data to demonstrate that many people had benefited from their experiences inFIRST robotics and to encourage more funding of robotics-related events.
At the World Championship in Atlanta, speakers included formerPresident of the United StatesGeorge H. W. Bush in 2008 andUnited States Secretary of EducationArne Duncan in 2010. In 2010, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce and Director of theU.S. Patent and Trademark OfficeJon Dudas was selected to be the President ofFIRST.[29] At the Championship in St. Louis, formerPresident of the United StatesBarack Obama spoke via a pre-recorded message from 2011 to 2014.FIRST has received the attention of politicians in Canada as well.OntarioMPPBob Delaney[30] andOntarioMPPVic Fedeli[31] have made remarks in theLegislative Assembly of Ontario regarding theirFIRST Robotics Competition experiences and showing their support.NASA, through its Robotics Alliance Project, is a major supporter ofFIRST. In 2018, the first episode of season five ofSTEM in 30, theNational Air and Space Museum's television show for middle school students, featuredFIRST.
FIRST seeks to promote a philosophy ofteamwork andcollaboration among engineers and encourages competing teams to remain friendly, helping each other out when necessary. Terms frequently applied to this ethos areGracious Professionalism andCoopertition; terms coined byWoodie Flowers and Kamen that support respect towards one's competitors and integrity in one's actions.[32] The concept of Gracious Professionalism grew from a robotics class that Flowers taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[33] Coopertition is patented under US Patent 7,507,169 by Dean Kamen.[34]
Note: All years indicate the year that thechampionship for that game was held.
