About First

FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is a unique intellectual sport designed to help students discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and programmers can be.

The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of highschoolers and their mentors to solve a common problem in a six-week timeframe using a standard “kit of parts” and a common set of rules. Teams build robots from the parts and enter them in competitions designed by Dean Kamen, Dr. Woodie Flowers, and a committee of engineers and other professionals.

"To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes," is the mission statement of FIRST, a not-for-profit public charity, founded in 1989 and headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire. In order to make the many FIRST sponsored events happen, the organization is supported by a network of over 3,500 corporations, educational and professional institutions, and more than 90,000 volunteers worldwide. In 2010, the FIRST scholarship program which includes over 130 scholarship providers awarded over $12 million in college scholarships and over 675 individual scholarships.

In all of the FIRST programs this year, over 214,000 students participated, making up 19,334 teams, 17, 834 robots, and 57, 576 mentors, and 34,000 event volunteers.

Scholarships are available here.