Portal:FIRST
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Welcome to the FIRST portal. FIRST Stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology". Each Year thousands of students from around the globe compete in 3 different competitions. FRC for high school students, FLL for middle school kids, and FVC for students who want more of a challenge than FLL, but do not have the resources for a FRC team.
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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 first program developed 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[1].
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 autonomously and compete against other teams[2]. This program 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. FIRST has also introduced the Junior FIRST LEGO League, which targets 6-9 year old students.
Later added to FIRST is the FIRST Vex Challenge, first demonstrated in 2005 and still in pilot program stages. This program is designed for intermediate level students and is regarded as more accessible for schools to participate. It has also served as a stepping stone for many teams leaving the FIRST LEGO League program, and continues to graduate many students into the FIRST Robotics Competition. FVC was developed for the Vex Robotics Design System, which is available commercially.[3]
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.[4]
FIRST Robotics Competition
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 to build robots weighing up to 120 pounds (depending on the current year's game) that can play a game which varies from year to year. Teams are given a base set of parts and details of the game at the beginning of January and are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot that can accomplish the game's task. Teams compete in 37[6] regional competitions over several weeks in March to try and 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]
FIRST LEGO League
FIRST Robotics' sister organization is the FIRST LEGO League (FLL). FLL is intended to further the same ideals that the FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) does but at a middle school level. It utilizes the Lego Mindstorms for Schools educational robotics system, including ROBOLAB programming software 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.
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.
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[8][9]. Competitions are being held around the United States, Canada, and Mexico.[10]
Junior FIRST LEGO League
The Junior FIRST LEGO Leauge is the variation of the FIRST LEGO League, aimed towards young 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 expositions around the country, where they demonstrate and explain their models and research for award opportunities.
References
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=880
- ^ 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/firstplace/default.aspx?id=822
- ^ http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=160
- ^ FRC Regional Events. FIRST. Retrieved on 2007-01-08.
- ^ FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST. Retrieved on 2006-06-09.
- ^ 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
External links
- Official FIRST website
- Official FIRST Vex Challenge website
- Official FIRST LEGO League website
- ChiefDelphi - Unofficial FIRST Forums
- FIRST2007 Video Group on YouTube - Unofficial FIRST Group on YouTube
- FIRST2007 Photo Group on flickr - Unofficial FIRST Group on flickr
- FIRSTwiki - Unofficial FIRST Wiki
| FIRST Portal |
Summary
This is a picture taken by KJHobin 14:58, 24 November 2006 (UTC). It was taken at a FIRST Robotics event.
Licensing
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This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License v. 2.5: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ |
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