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 excite students about engineering and technology. The first event 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.
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 excite students about engineering and technology. The first event 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.
Later on, the FIRST LEGO League, a program similar to the FIRST Robotics Competition, was formed. It is aimed at younger students and it utilizes Lego Mind storms sets to build palm-sized robots, rather than the actual person-sized metal robots that the high schoolers in the FRC build. The latest event to be added to FIRST is the FIRST Vex Challenge (started in 2005). It is designed for high school students who don't have the financial, temporal, or other resources for the FIRST Robotics Competition.
FIRST also operates FIRST Place, a facility at FIRST headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire where FIRST holds educational programs for students and teachers.
Website: http://www.usfirst.org/