“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.”
Dean Kamen, Founder
Mission
Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
WHAT IS FIRST?
The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week time frame using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from parts and enter them in a series of competitions designed by Dean Kamen, Woodie Flowers, and a committee of engineers and other professionals. The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The program is a life-changing, career-molding experience- and a lot of fun.
In 2007, the competition will reach over 30,000 high-school-aged young people on over 1,300 teams in 37 regional events and The Championship held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta where more than 8,500 high-school-aged young people participate. Our teams came from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, the UK and almost every US state.
The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting event, the result of lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project time lines, and deadlines.
Colleges, universities,corporations, businesses, and individuals provide scholarships to our participants. Involved engineers experience again many of the reasons they chose engineering as a profession, and the companies they work for contribute to the community while they prepare and create their future workforce. The competition shows students that the technological fields hold many oppurtunities and that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering, and invention are exciting and interesting