FIRST

From FIRSTwiki

FIRST stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1992 as a way of getting high school students involved in and excited about science and technology. The program involves teams of mentors and high school students that collaborate to design and build a robot in six weeks. This robot is built for the purpose of playing a game that is designed and implemented by FIRST. The game changes from year to year and is announced annually at a nationally simulcast kickoff event in January. Regional competitions take place around the world; FIRST is an international organization that currently has teams from Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, only Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States have FRC teams.

As of 2007, FIRST includes:

The highest honor bestowed in FIRST is the Chairman's Award, which is given to the team that best manifests the FIRST spirit of gracious professionalism. Regional Chairman's Award winners then compete at the national level for the National Chairman's Award.

FIRST Robotics' sister organization is the FIRST Lego League. It is intended to further the same ideals that FIRST does but at a middle school level and utilizing the Lego Mindstorms robotics system.

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