First Robotics Competition combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. High-school student participants call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.” 

Under strict rules along with limited time and resources, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors. It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get in a fun, competitive environment. Volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. Each season ends with an exciting FIRST Championship, where the teams are able to compete against other local and travel teams to demonstrate their robots they’ve worked hard to design, build, and code. The top 3 teams, or winning alliance, from each regional or state competition advance to Worlds, which is typically held in Houston or Detroit. Teams have other ways they can qualify for Worlds, too, such as the Impact Award.