FIRST
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| FIRST | |
 |
|
| Founder | Dean Kamen |
|---|---|
| Type | 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Headquarters | Manchester, NH |
| Key people | Dean Kamen, Founder John Abele, Chairman of the Board Paul Gudonis, President |
| Revenue | $20,803,521[1] |
| Volunteers | 60,000 |
| Members | 130,000 students 10,652 robots 37,000 mentors 27,000 event volunteers[2] |
| Slogan | "To create a world where science and technology are celebrated... where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes" |
| Website | usfirst.org |
FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 in order to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. The organization is the foundation for the FIRST Robotics Competition, the FIRST LEGO League, and the FIRST Vex Challenge competition.
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.[3]
Contents |
[edit] FIRST Robotics Competition
The first program developed through FIRST was the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), which is designed to inspire high school students to become engineers by giving them real world experience working with professional engineers to develop a robot. The inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition was held in 1992[4]. As of 2007, over 1300 high school teams totaling over 32,500 students from Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom[5], and more compete in the annual competition. The competition challenge changes each year, and the teams cannot reuse components created for previous robots. The robots weigh around 120 pounds (depending on the current year's rules). The kit issued to each team contains a base set of parts. Details of the game are released at the beginning of January, and the teams are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot that can accomplish the game's tasks. In 2007, teams competed in 37[6] regional competitions throughout March in an effort to qualify for the FIRST Championship in Atlanta, Georgia in April. Previous years' Championships have been held in Houston, Texas and at Walt Disney World's Epcot.[7]
[edit] FIRST LEGO League
In 1998, the FIRST LEGO League (FLL), a program similar to the FIRST Robotics Competition, was formed. It is aimed at 9-14 year old students and utilizes LEGO Mindstorms sets to build palm-sized LEGO robots, which are then programmed using the ROBOLAB software to autonomously compete against other teams[8]. The ROBOLAB software is based on National Instruments' LabView industrial control engineering software. The combination of interchangeable LEGO parts, computer 'bricks' and 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.
[edit] Junior FIRST LEGO League
The Junior FIRST LEGO League is a variation of the FIRST LEGO League, aimed towards elementary school children, in which 6-9 year olds 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.
[edit] FIRST Vex Challenge
The FIRST Vex Challenge is a mid-level robotics competition announced by FIRST on March 22, 2005. The FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC), according to FIRST, was designed to be a more accessible and affordable option for schools. FIRST has also said that the FVC program was created for those of an intermediate skill level. FIRST Vex Challenge robots are approximately one-third the scale of their FRC counterparts. The FVC competition is meant to provide a transition for students from the FLL competition to the FRC competition. FVC was developed for the Vex Robotics Design System, which is available commercially.[9]
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 FVC Season (2007 FRC Season), the FIRST Vex Challenge teams are competing 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[10][11]. Competitions are being held around the United States, Canada, and Mexico.[12]
[edit] Political Involvement
Each year during the kickoff speech, Dean Kamen gives the students participants some homework to do after the build season is over. Often this involves spreading the word of FIRST in various ways, such as increasing attendance at regionals (2005[13]), mentoring rookie teams and making sure that FIRST-specific scholarships are applied for (2004[14]), and researching the capabilities of motors and disseminating that information to other teams (2006[15]). In 2007, Dean's homework was for each team to contact each local level of government (in the USA, congressman, senators, governors, and the president) 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. Any responses (or lack thereof) would be publically posted on the FIRST Q&A forum[16].
Some teams had success with their homework, with results including MA Governor Deval Patrick attending the 2007 Boston Regional [17] and a joint bill passed in the NJ house expressing support of FIRST [18]. More substantial results have included the state of Rhode Island funding a FVC team in every high school in the state[19], and the state of Michigan making available $150,000 in grants to FRC teams within the state [20][21].
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Who/Annual_Report-Financials/FirstAnnual06(1).pdf Retrieved on 2007-04-05
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=160 Retrieved on 2007-04-04
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/firstplace/default.aspx?id=822
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=880
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=160
- ^ FRC Regional Events. FIRST. Retrieved on January 8, 2007.
- ^ FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST. Retrieved on June 9, 2006.
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=880#fll_challenge
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/what/fvc/default.aspx?id=380
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/fvc/default.aspx
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FVC/FVC_Documents_and_Updates/2006_FVC_Manual_Sections_1_-_8.pdf
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/fvc/events.aspx?id=720&menu_id=84
- ^ http://robotics.nasa.gov/first/2005/caption.htm
- ^ http://robotics.nasa.gov/first/2004/translog.htm
- ^ http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/first/transcript.htm
- ^ http://forums.usfirst.org/forumdisplay.php?s=2bd1edd128f56f655918f33fbf687365&f=293
- ^ http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27943
- ^ http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/Bills/AJR/134_I1.PDF
- ^ http://www.stac.ri.gov/index.php?section=news&item=21#
- ^ http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Mikes_Robotics_170565_7.pdf
- ^ http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-5229-150341--,00.html
