FIRST Technology Challenge

When Mississippi non-profit Scientific Research, or SR1 for short, opened its doors in 2005, they faced an uphill battle in their mission to change the culture of education for students in a state ranked last in math and science scores. But as SR1, based in Ridgeland, a northern suburb of Jackson, matured and met with success in their target areas of health, education and technology, founder Tamu Green began looking for ways to branch out and provide hands-on experiences.  His search led him to the FIRST  Tech Challenge. The program seemed like a good fit to Green, who said the students he works with have little exposure to science, technology, engineering and math when they come to his after-school program.  After talking with the Mississippi FTC representative at the University of Mississippi, Mannie Lowe, SR1 started its first FTC robot team, Team 6205, SCARLET (Science Creations Are Real Let's Evolve Together). "It was tough at first," said Green, who has a background

Need a story that will inspire you and rekindle your faith in humanity?  Then spend some time hanging around a FIRST  event. Every time I find myself at an event - whether it's a small, regional qualifier, or a high-profile event like the World Championship - I hear amazing stories about life-changing projects undertaken by  FIRST Teams and students. Many of these stories are about  FIRST Teams having a huge impact on the home front.  Many others highlight the global reach of the four programs.  At this year's World Championship, I heard two amazing and completely different stories about FTC Teams having an impact at home and abroad that I'd like to share. The first came to me through a couple of our dedicated volunteers - Andy Marshall, from National Instruments, and Luan Heimlich, our Australian Affiliate Partner from Macquarie University.  They conveyed to me a story from the 2013 Asian-Pacific Invitational, a top-ranked team chose a lower-ranked team from another count

The U.S. Air Force is a big supporter of  FIRST and one of the ways they do this is the Air Force Leadership Experience. Today marks the launch of the third annual edition of this opportunity, which is for  a select group of FIRST Teachers and Mentors who are inspiring today’s youth to become the technical leaders of tomorrow. U.S. Air Force Academy Twenty-four FTC and FRC Mentors, who are also K-12 teachers, will be selected to attend an all-expense paid seminar at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado, August 4-5.  These individuals will learn about unique career opportunities the Air Force has to offer the next generation of technology leaders. For more information, please visit the USAir Force Leadership Experience website.  The deadline to apply for this program is June 6, and The process is competitive.  Good luck!

Can you believe it's already time for a new season of FTC!  Starting tomorrow, May 14, at 12 p.m. (ET), Teams can begin registering in the Team Information Management System  for the 2014-15 FTC Season. Even though Kickoff and the game reveal are still a few months away, it's never too early to get a jump on next season.  Whether you're a rookie or veteran Team, the Spring and Summer months are great times to get ready for when competitions start in the Fall. This process of preparation begins with registration.  If you're new to the program, spend some time reviewing the " Register a Team " and " Starting a Team " section of our website.  When you feel you understand the process, visit the Team Information Management System to complete your registration and pay the $275 registration fee.  Once that's done, you can order* your kit of parts. Rookie Teams should start going through the resources available on the FTC  website , try building with the

A few months ago, I introduced the first-ever FTC Minibot Challenge.  It was a lot of fun and it was great to see so many Teams participate (even some great FIRST  LEGO League Teams).  Each Team had really creative ideas on what these robots should look like and what function they should perform. Teams submitted their robot designs via YouTube videos and entries were judged by the community. Points were given for the number of likes and comments a video earned.  Now that these points are tallied, I'm excited to announce the top winners of this challenge. First Place goes to FTC Team 7172, Technical Difficulties, for their "Plotter Bot"! Second Place goes to FTC Team 5609, Ciberbots, for their Catapult! And in Third Place, we had a tie between FTC Team 4924, Tuxedo Pandas, and FTC Team 7361, CTRL-ALT-DEL! A big thank you to all of the FLL and FTC Teams that participated in this challenge.  It was fun watching all of the creative ideas come to life and all the different f