Visiting The FIRST Robotics Regional This Friday


Just a quick heads-up. I’ll be checking out the FIRST robotics competition in Kansas City this friday. It’s a robotics comp between teams of high school students – and the prizes include quite a few scholarships. I know we’ve got some readers who are in the competition. If you see a guy with a Hack-A-Day sweatshirt/T-shirt on, say hi and I might hook you up with some stickers. My day job will be providing real-time video streaming of the event, so feel free to check that out.

37 thoughts on “Visiting The FIRST Robotics Regional This Friday

  1. I’ll bake you cookies if you go to the one in Pittsburgh -next-
    Friday. My team will be there. And it’ll be Pi day. =D

    Really, FIRST is awesome. I too recommend it for any high school
    student.

  2. I’m not involved with F.i.r.s.t. at all but I have a co-worker who coaches a local team. I’m in NH and from what I’ve heard the competition is usually really strong in this state since it’s the birth place (what with dean kamen here and all).

    it’s cool stuff, I wish this was around when I was in high school :(

  3. I’m on a FIRST team competing next week and the program is so amazing, I can’t wait for Nationals this year. Anyone interested in it should definitely check out becoming a mentor of joining a team if you’re in high school. Team 1102 if anyone else is going to be at the Peachtree Regional next week.

  4. FIRST is amazing.. and when i read #11, i was like wait thats my team and then i realized it was one of the co-captains of me team. Go 1102! We think that we have the oppurntunity to go really far this year and i hope we do!!

  5. I’m a 7-year veteran of FIRST… it will be great fun. I’ll be watching my old team over the web when they go to Richmond this weekend, and maybe going in person to the Boston regional later this month.

  6. FIRST totally helped focus my energy on engineering when I was in high school. I learned more during my work on FIRST that the other 3 years of high school, combined.

    Highly highly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in any form of technology/engineering.

    Team 192 represent!

  7. 1675 UPS FTW! I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of submitting this before. I have been watching hackaday for a few years now, and am a 3 YEAR vet of FIRST, and would also like to point out this website is a favorite amongst some of our members (and inspiration/projects during down time). We will be competing in Milwaukee in the Wisconsin regional 3/13-15 I extend an invitation to everybody (of course) As thats what it’s all about.

    Hope to maybe see hackaday? That’d be awesome… Look us up, Team 1675 the Ultimate Protection Squad

    FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

  8. i am on first as a captin (tean bacon) one year we one third and this year by some mirical we were in second until the last round an we forgot to turn on the robot and were disqualified from the match comeing in 4th i belive

  9. team #2219 representing! glad to see hack a day finally did a piece on FIRST.

    Second year veteran from the St. Louis Competition. Finished 19th this year. looking forward to next years competition. Anyone from the St. Louis competition who reads hackaday should try to find me in 2219’s pit. be sure to say hi and share our own hacks/mods

  10. Leader of team 1358 here. Glad to see FIRST made it to hackaday. Come to the SPBLI and you’ll be greeted grandly by my team :)
    FIRST is an awesome experience for all involved.

  11. The first competition and vex are bot awesome, but the best high school robotics competition is the B.E.S.T. competition. Our robots have to be built from scratch given a certain amount of supplies (controller, 3 servos, two large and two small motors) and a list of other supplies that we can use. We are then given an assignment and have to build a robot that can preform the task against other robots. http://www.bestinc.org

  12. I’m a former 3 year member of team 935 from Newton, KS. They should be attending the KS event this year. If I wasn’t stuck working on my senior design project, I’d be there myself.

    If you get the time, scope them out. You should be treated to a slew of CNC goodies. 8)

  13. ZOMGWTFBBQ!!! OH YEAH!!! FRC Team 555 REPRESENT!!! I’ve been reading HackADay for 3 years, and I’ve been involved in F.I.R.S.T. for 3 years, coincidence? I THINK NOT! But why didn’t I think of this? Anyway, these comments are starting to get to Chief Delphi level of insanity, so I will wrap this up.

  14. I was in first, and it was a great experience, but generally
    a)way to many teams have adults that do a lot of the work
    b)some teams have access to insane amounts of money/equipment and have thus perfected certain aspects that always are involved with the game
    c)it costs a lot of money in general for a team
    d)the games haven’t been that inventive and it’s generally still some humans driving a giant RC car with added features. I doubt it will happen but I want to see first do something more in line with industry. Involve more programming and autonomous then they have, push teams to go past the rc car that has been the standard for the last 6 years.

  15. FIRST is a great competition. i was on my schools team for the 98 and 99 seasons and got to go as alumni to the 00 chamionships in Epcot Center. AWSOME EXPERIENCE! Reccomend it to anyone who has technical know-how.

  16. team 451 CAT ATTACK!!!
    you should come to Pittsburgh next week we’ll save you a seat! That is if were not all asleep (leaving at 4 am to get there) or drilling holes in our robot to get it under weight

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