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This March 27th through the 28th, high school students from all over will be taking part in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) at University of Denver’s Ritchie Center (2240 Buchtel Blvd, Denver, CO 80210). No, I’m not being dramatic, FIRST is an acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. This exciting, multinational competition teams students with professionals in order to solve an engineering design problem in a competitive manner.

An opportunity such as this allows students who hope to excel in engineering and robot design to learn from professionals by solving problems and troubleshooting in real time. No matter how the competition turns out, everyone who enters is a winner. This competition will prepare students to take on real engineering challenges that affect everyone, gives them a hands on experience with professional software, and provides them with the tools they’ll need throughout their careers.

All business and career tools aside, this event is super fun. In 2013 (I know, so two years ago, but whatever) this competition held over 50,000 high school students on over 2,500 teams in 58 regional events to do things like have robot fights. Who doesn’t love a good robot fight? That sound of metal on metal, bashing and crashing against each other until one robot saws into the other’s mainframe, rendering it as useless as a paperweight. It’s like music to my ears.

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But robot smashing isn’t the only competition going on here. The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is for the intermediates. It offers a more standard challenge with a more accessible and affordable robot building kit. I know, where can you get one? I’ll tell you when I find out. FTC is the less violent version of a robot fight, in that they don’t really fight at all. Teams of up to 10 students design, build, and program their robots to compete against each other in performing tasks like picking things up, playing robot sports, or coming up with witty insults to trash-talk other teams (okay, I made that one up, but wouldn’t you love to hear trash-talking robots?).

For 9-14 year olds (and me, if they’d let me enter) there is a FIRST Lego League, considered the “little league” because of the contestant’s physical size and inability to legally drive, where students build robots out of Lego pieces and use Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System technology to create elements such as sensors, motors, gears, and lasers (sorry, made that last one up too). These kids have a sick opportunity to be introduced to team-building, programming, and basic engineering that’ll inspire and excite. Of course, there are mentors to help guide them along the way. You don’t just leave a bunch of kids in a room with Legos and walk away.

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FIRST is more than just a fun place where students and professionals get together and make robots fight, it’s a place where students can learn teamwork, science and technology, engineering techniques and practices, and can observe professionals as they do what they do best, build and program robots. FIRST is a popular event and is growing with every year it’s held. So do yourself a favor and check out this years FIRST Robotics Competition at the Ritchie Center this March 27th. Because who doesn’t want to watch a robot beat up another robot all while learning valuable life skills?

by Glenn Krieger