FIRST Global Challenge

Last updated

Feeding the Future (Athens 2024)
FGC 2024 Athens Logo.jpg
Host city Athens
Country Greece
OrganizerFIRST Global
Edition8th
Nations191
OpeningSeptember 26, 2024 (2024-09-26)
ClosingSeptember 29, 2024 (2024-09-29)
Main venue Peace and Friendship Stadium
Website www.first.global
 Hydrogen Horizons (Singapore 2023)

The FIRST Global Challenge is a yearly Olympics-style robotics competition organized by the International First Committee Association. It promotes STEM education and careers for youth and was created by Dean Kamen in 2016 as an expansion of FIRST, an organization with similar objectives.

Contents

History

FIRST Global is a trade name for the International First Committee Association, [1] a nonprofit corporation based in Manchester, New Hampshire, with a 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS. [2]

The nonprofit was founded by the co-founder of FIRST, Dean Kamen, with the objective of promoting STEM education and careers in the developing world through Olympics-style robotics competitions. Former US Congressman, Joe Sestak was the organization's president in 2017, [3] but left after the 2017 Challenge. [4]

Each year, the FIRST Global Challenge is held in a different city. For example, Mexico City was selected to host the 2018 Challenge after the United States hosted the 2017 edition in Washington, DC. [5] This is a change from FIRST's system of championships, where one city hosts for several years at a time, and more closely follows the design of the Olympic Games.

In May 2020, it was announced that FIRST Global would not host a traditional challenge in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shifted to a remote model. [6]

In 2022, FIRST Global returned to in-person events with the 2022 Challenge in Geneva, Switzerland. [7]

Editions

Washington, D.C. 2017

The 2017 FIRST Global Challenge was held in Washington, D.C., from July 16–18, and the challenge was the use of robots to separate different colored balls, representing clean water and impurities in water, symbolizing the Engineering Grand Challenge (based on the Millennium Development Goal) [8] of improving access to clean water in the developing world. [9] [10] Around 160 teams composed of 15- to 18-year-olds from 157 countries participated, [11] and around 60% of teams were created or led by young women. [12] Six continental teams also participated. [13]

Mexico City 2018

A competition during FIRST Global Challenge 2018 Mundial de Robotica img8043.jpg
A competition during FIRST Global Challenge 2018

The 2018 FIRST Global Challenge was held in Mexico City from August 15–18. The 2018 Challenge was called Energy Impact and explored the impact of various types of energy on the world and how they can be made more sustainable. In the challenge, robots worked together in teams of three to give cubes to human players, turn a crank, and score cubes in goals in order to generate electrical power. [14] The challenge was based on three Engineering Grand Challenges; making solar energy affordable, making fusion energy a reality, and creating carbon sequestration methods. [15] [16] [17]

Dubai 2019

The 2019 challenge, called Ocean Opportunities, was held in Dubai from October 24–27 and was the first challenge hosted outside of North America. [18] The challenge was themed around clearing the ocean of pollutants, and had two alliances of three teams each attempting to score large and small balls representing pollutants into processing areas and a processing barge. [19] The processing barge had multiple levels, with higher levels worth more points. At the end of the match, robots "docked" with the barge by driving onto or climbing up it, with climbing worth more points. The event was opened by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. [20]

Geneva 2022

The 2022 challenge called Carbon Capture, was held in Geneva from October 13–16. The challenge was themed around removing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the atmosphere. In the Carbon Capture game, six different countries worked together to capture and store black balls representing carbon particles. [21] The storage tower had multiple cantilevered bars that the robots mounted to, with the higher bars worth a greater multiplier. At the end of a match, robots "docked" on the storage tower's base or climbed the bars with their alliance indicator ball. Each match started with a "global alliance" of six countries, then divided into two "regional alliances" each consisting of three countries. [22] The event was opened by Dr. Martina Hirayama, Switzerland State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). [23] ну нихуя себе

Singapore 2023

The 2023 challenge, called Hydrogen Horizons, was held in Singapore from October 7–10. The challenge is themed around renewable energy with a focus on hydrogen technologies. [24]

Global STEM Corps

The Global STEM Corps is a FIRST Global initiative that connects qualified volunteer mentors with students in developing countries to prepare them for competitions. [25]

New Technology Experience

The New Technology Experience (NTE) is an annual component of the FIRST Global Challenge that was added to the organization's offerings in 2021. It was established as a means for the student community to stay current with cutting-edge technology and is integrated with each year's theme. The 2021 NTE was the CubeSat Prototype Challenge. The 2022 NTE, Carbon Countermeasures, was presented in partnership with XPRIZE. [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International trade</span> Exchange across international borders

International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TotalEnergies</span> French multinational energy and petroleum company

TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and is one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. TotalEnergies is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.

XPRIZE foundation is a non-profit organization that designs and hosts public competitions intended to encourage technological development. The XPRIZE mission is to bring about "radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity" through incentivized competition. It aims to motivate individuals, companies, and organizations to develop ideas and technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technische Universität Darmstadt</span> Public university in Darmstadt, Germany

The Technische Universität Darmstadt, commonly known as TU Darmstadt, is a research university in the city of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1877 and received the right to award doctorates in 1899. In 1882, it was the first university in the world to set up a chair in electrical engineering. In 1883, the university founded the first faculty of electrical engineering and introduced the world's first degree course in electrical engineering. In 2004, it became the first German university to be declared as an autonomous university. TU Darmstadt has assumed a pioneering role in Germany. Computer science, electrical engineering, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, business informatics, political science and many more courses were introduced as scientific disciplines in Germany by Darmstadt faculty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">College of Engineering, Pune</span> Engineering college in Pune, Maharashtra

College Of Engineering Pune (COEP) Technological University is a unitary public university of the Government of Maharashtra, situated in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Established in 1854, it is the 3rd oldest engineering institute in India, after College of Engineering, Guindy (1794) and IIT Roorkee (1847). The students and alumni are colloquially referred to as COEPians. On 23 June 2022, Government of Maharashtra issued a notification regarding conversion of the college into an independent technological university. On 24 March 2022, both the houses of the state government passed the CoEP Technological University bill, which has conferred a unitary state university status on the institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dubai Autodrome</span> Motorsports circuit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

The Dubai Autodrome is an FIA sanctioned 5.390 km (3.349 mi) motorsports circuit located in Dubailand, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The architects of the project were Populous and the circuit was designed by Clive Bowen of Apex Circuit Design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small Island Developing States</span> Developing countries that are small island countries

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a grouping of developing countries which are small island countries and tend to share similar sustainable development challenges. These include small but growing populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters, vulnerability to external shocks, excessive dependence on international trade, and fragile environments. Their growth and development are also held back by high communication, energy and transportation costs, irregular international transport volumes, disproportionately expensive public administration and infrastructure due to their small size, and little to no opportunity to create economies of scale. They consist of some of the most vulnerable countries to anthropogenic climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Robotics Competition (Singapore)</span>

National Robotics Competition (NRC) is a robotics competition jointly organised by Singapore Science Centre and Duck Learning Education, with support from the Ministry of Education and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. It aims to help nurture a new generation of youths with interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to aspire in improving the lives of people, and encourages students to develop problem solving skills, entrepreneurial skills, creative thinking skills and team spirit.

The Gold Standard (GS), or Gold Standard for the Global Goals, is a standard and logo certification mark program, for non-governmental emission reductions projects in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Voluntary Carbon Market and other climate and development interventions. It is published and administered by the Gold Standard Foundation, a non-profit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It was designed with an intent to ensure that carbon credits are real, verifiable, and that projects make measurable contributions to sustainable development. The objective of the GS is to add branding, with a quality label, to carbon credits generated by projects which can then be bought and traded by countries that have a binding legal commitment according to the Kyoto Protocol, businesses, or other organizations for carbon offsetting purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhouse gas emissions</span> Sources and amounts of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere from human activities

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide, from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is one of the most important factors in causing climate change. The largest emitters are China followed by the United States. The United States has higher emissions per capita. The main producers fueling the emissions globally are large oil and gas companies. Emissions from human activities have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels. The growing levels of emissions have varied, but have been consistent among all greenhouse gases. Emissions in the 2010s averaged 56 billion tons a year, higher than any decade before. Total cumulative emissions from 1870 to 2022 were 703 GtC, of which 484±20 GtC from fossil fuels and industry, and 219±60 GtC from land use change. Land-use change, such as deforestation, caused about 31% of cumulative emissions over 1870–2022, coal 32%, oil 24%, and gas 10%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coal-fired power station</span> Type of thermal power station

A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are over 2,400 coal-fired power stations, totaling over 2,130 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a third of the world's electricity, but cause many illnesses and the most early deaths, mainly from air pollution. World installed capacity doubled from 2000 to 2023 and increased 2% in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FIRST Championship</span> Annual student robotics championship

The FIRST Championship is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which FIRST student robotics teams compete. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri in 2011, where it remained through 2017. In 2017, the Championship was split into two events, being additionally held at the George R. Brown Convention Center and Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. In 2018 and 2019, the Championship was held in Houston and Detroit, Michigan at the TCF Center and Ford Field. The event comprises four competitions; the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship, the FIRST Lego League World Festival, and the FIRST Lego League Junior World Expo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in China</span> Emissions, impacts and responses of China related to climate change

Climate change is having major effects on the Chinese economy, society and the environment. China is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, through an energy infrastructure heavily focused on coal. Other industries, such as a burgeoning construction industry and industrial manufacturing, contribute heavily to carbon emissions. However, like other developing countries, on a per-capita basis, China's carbon emissions are considerably less than countries like the United States. It has also been noted that higher-income countries have outsourced emissions-intensive industries to China. On the basis of cumulative CO2 emissions measured from 1751 through to 2017, China is responsible for 13% globally and about half of the United States' cumulative emissions. China is now the world's largest polluter and in 2023 recorded its hottest year on record with an average temperature of 10.7 C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Student Robotics</span>

Student Robotics is a registered charity that runs an annual robotics competition for teams of 16 to 19 year-olds. The charity aims to foster a world where engineering and artificial intelligence is accessible to young people with a stated mission "to bring the excitement of engineering and the challenge of coding to young people through robotics". The competition is free to enter and teams are provided with all of the core electronics that they need to build a robot. To encourage creative and ingenious solutions to problems, constraints on design are kept to a minimum, and the students can build and fashion their robots with any materials they choose; this results in a wide range of quirky, original robots. The robots must operate autonomously; once they are switched on to compete no interference from the team is allowed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X Development</span> American research and development company

X Development LLC, doing business as X, is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010. X has its headquarters about a mile and a half from Alphabet's corporate headquarters, the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Climate Change Conference</span> Yearly conference held for climate change treaty negotiations

The United Nations Climate Change Conferences are yearly conferences held in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC parties – the Conference of the Parties (COP) – to assess progress in dealing with climate change, and beginning in the mid-1990s, to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Starting in 2005 the conferences have also served as the "Conference of the Parties Serving as the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol" (CMP); also parties to the convention that are not parties to the protocol can participate in protocol-related meetings as observers. From 2011 to 2015 the meetings were used to negotiate the Paris Agreement as part of the Durban platform, which created a general path towards climate action. Any final text of a COP must be agreed by consensus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of the Future</span> Exhibition space in Dubai, UAE

Museum of the Future is a landmark devoted to innovative and futuristic ideologies. Located in the Financial District of Dubai, UAE, the Museum of the Future is a torus-shaped building with windows in the form of a poem about the future, written by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai. Founded by the Dubai Future Foundation. The Government of the United Arab Emirates opened the museum on 22 February 2022. The choice of the date was officially made because 22 February 2022 is a palindrome date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Solar Alliance</span> Solar energy initiative launched in 2015

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of more than 120 signatory countries, most being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The primary objective of the alliance is to work for the efficient consumption of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This initiative was first proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech in November 2015 at Wembley Stadium, in which he referred to sunshine countries as Suryaputra. The alliance is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization. Countries that do not fall within the Tropics can join the alliance and enjoy all benefits as other members, with the exception of voting rights.

VEX Robotics is a robotics program for elementary through university students and a subset of Innovation First International. The VEX Robotics competitions and programs are managed by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF). In April 2018, VEX Robotics Competition was named the largest robotics competition in the world by Guinness World Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iran robotics team</span>

The Iran Robotics Team represents Iran in the FIRST Global Challenge, a yearly Olympics-style robotics competition organized by the International First Committee Association (IFCA), among more than 190 countries, since 2017.

References

  1. "Haiti Students Compete in First Global Robot Olympics in DC". L'union Suite. July 18, 2017.
  2. "Unrated Profile for International First Committee Association". Charity Navigator. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  3. Global, FIRST (July 19, 2017). "Students from 160 Nations to Reconvene a Year from Now in Mexico City for the Second Iteration of the FIRST Global Challenge". FIRST Global. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  4. "FIRST Global Transitions". us15.campaign-archive.com. September 6, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  5. "Students from 160 Nations to Reconvene a Year from Now in Mexico City for the Second Iteration of the FIRST Global Challenge – FIRST Global". first.global. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  6. "Message from FIRST Global". FIRST Global. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  7. Global, FIRST (March 1, 2022). "GENEVA TO HOST THE 2022 FIRST GLOBAL CHALLENGE EVENT". FIRST Global. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  8. "Provide Access to Clean Water". Engineering Grand Challenges. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  9. Chokshi, Niraj (July 13, 2017). "After Visa Denials, Afghan Girls Can Attend Robotics Contest in U.S." The New York Times.
  10. Pilapitiya, Tarini (July 23, 2017). "Elizabeth Moir students represent Sri Lanka at FIRST Global Challenge". The Sunday Times Sri Lanka.
  11. "What Really Happened at That Robotics Competition You've Heard So Much About". NPR. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  12. Galvin, Gaby (July 19, 2017). "Afghan Girls Celebrated at Global Robotics Event". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on July 19, 2017.
  13. "2017 FIRST Global Challenge". FIRST Global. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  14. "2018 FIRST Global Challenge". FIRST Global. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  15. "Grand Challenges – Make Solar Energy Economical". www.engineeringchallenges.org. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  16. "Grand Challenges – Provide Energy from Fusion". www.engineeringchallenges.org. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  17. "Grand Challenges – Develop Carbon Sequestration Methods". www.engineeringchallenges.org. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  18. "Arabnet | Dubai Will Host the FIRST Global Robotics this Year". www.arabnet.me. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  19. "2019 FIRST Global Challenge". FIRST Global. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  20. "Global robotics challenge kicks off in Dubai". gulfnews.com. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
  21. "FIRST Global Challenge 2022". FIRST Global. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
  22. "2022 FIRST Global Challenge". FIRST Global. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  23. 2022 FIRST Global Challenge - Opening Ceremony , retrieved April 5, 2023
  24. Global, FIRST (March 11, 2023). "The 2023 FIRST Global Challenge will Unite Youth from 190+ Countries in Singapore". FIRST Global. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
  25. "FIRST Global Challenge 2017 – FIRST Global". first.global. Archived from the original on July 19, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  26. "Carbon". FIRST Global. Retrieved April 5, 2023.