FIRST — For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — is a global youth robotics organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen. Its goal is simple: make science and technology as exciting for students as sports.
FIRST runs team-based robotics programs where students design and build real machines to compete in a new game every year. Along the way they work with professional mentors, hit hard deadlines, and learn that engineering is a team sport.
Teams don't just compete — they help each other. Lending a part to the team you're about to play is normal here, and it's the part of FIRST that sticks with people longest.
The youngest students build with LEGO and explore a real-world theme through play and simple models.
Elementary and middle school teams program a LEGO robot for a table-top game and present a research project.
Middle and high school teams build a compact robot from a mix of kit and custom parts. This is where the Mechanical Monkeys started.
High school teams build a large, powerful robot in roughly six weeks and compete on a full-size field. This is where we compete now, as Team 12064.
The new game is revealed to every team worldwide at the same moment. Rules, field, and scoring drop all at once.
Strategy, prototyping, CAD, fabrication, wiring, and programming — compressed into a stretch of very long nights.
Regional and district events, then championships. Matches are played by three-team alliances, so cooperation decides outcomes as much as hardware.
Roughly 120 pounds, built to a strict size envelope, driven by students and running autonomously for the first seconds of every match.
Events award more than wins: engineering design, innovation, outreach impact, and team sustainability all get recognized.
FIRST participants have access to a large pool of college scholarships from universities and companies.
Compete hard, treat everyone well. You can play to win and still help the team across the field fix their drivetrain twenty minutes before the match.
Teams cooperate and compete at the same time. Sharing designs, code, and spare parts makes the whole program better — and it's expected, not exceptional.
FRC events are free for spectators and genuinely loud. Come find us in the pits — we'll show you the robot.