FIRST, STEM, NASA, Robots, OMGKICKOFF...WHAT?!

Yesterday, Saturday 1/9/2010, kickoff for the 2010 FIRST Robotics season was held in a college gym on a cold New England morning in Manchester, New Hampshire. I was there like I have been for many of the past several years with close friends and as I described it "lots and lots of crazy robot people."  It occurred to me as Twitter back channel to the event raged on that the majority of my followers at this point likely had absolutely no clue what I was talking about. Perhaps more interestingly though I think that many might actually be interested, so this post is an attempt to try and summarize my experience over the last 14 years with the program with an acronym as its name, F.I.R.S.T or "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."

Where to start? FIRST as an organization was founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen (if that name sounds familiar it is likely because he is "the Segway guy") with the goal of encouraging more high school age students to choose careers in the fields of science, technology, and engineering. In addition it was hoped that by partnering teams of high school students with engineering mentors from companies like BAE Systems and General Motors and organizations like NASA they would come to view these engineers as role models in the way sports players had traditionally been. It's quickly evident that what this simple idea represents is a complete cultural shift for the United States, perhaps more of one in 1989 than 2010, but none-the-less.

In 1992 the means to these ends were revealed in the form of a robotics competition, known today officially as the FIRST Robotics Competition, that required students to build robots that would traverse a table top filled with corn kernels and retrieve tennis balls and place them in a goal.  The student-engineer teams were given a kit of relatively random parts and six weeks to build an prepare their robots.  At the end of those six weeks a couple of dozen teams met in Manchester New Hampshire for the first national championship of FIRST Robotics. The top prize that year indecently went to a plastics company, from a small blue collar town in central Massachusetts known as Nypro Inc. In 2010 FIRST is made up of several different programs, hundreds of teams, holds regional competitions in all parts of the country, and the world championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Obviously FIRST has grown but the formula remains much the same even today.

I became involved with FIRST in 1996 as a high school freshman and looking back it is no understatement to say that there hasn't been a bigger influence on how I arrived where I am today that my involvement with FIRST.  The field I work in (software), the company I work for (a CAD company), a previous long term relationship, and my very close circle of friends can all be traced back to FIRST.

That's my story but what about the goal of FIRST has it contributed to more students choosing a career in engineering, etc?  Today the focus in many circles of those attempting to influence education policy is on STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education and the programs, like FIRST, that make such education interesting to students.  As a result of this focus a number of studies have been conducted.  What I can do is provide my observations from 14 years of being involved on some level, even if just as in recent times an observer, with FIRST. If I were to try and count just the people I know directly who have participated in FIRST, gone to school, and comeback to serve as a mentor on a FIRST team, to complete the circle I honestly wouldn't be able to count them all. I think that's pretty compelling evidence right there that something is definetely working.

All of this is well and good but what I've found over the last 14 years is that in many ways FIRST defies any explanation words can contrive, it actually really does have to be seen to be believed. I could try to describe what it's like to walk into an arena of several thousand kids cheering things like "Gali-Leo! or Isaac Newton!" for the first time but you really don't get it until you walk into that arena. If you've made it this far and have any interest what-so-ever then I highly encourage you, and your children if applicable, to attend an event in your area.

This year's game, revealed for the first time ever at yesterday's kickoff is known as "Breakaway" you can take a look at the video below for an explanation of how the game is played. For information on events, teams and all the programs in your area check the list on the FIRST web site.

(Note, the opinions and characterizations in this post are mine and mine alone and do not represent the views of FIRST or any particular team involved in the program. Anything that's trademarked belongs to whoever owns it and not me.)