BEST is a national six-week robotics competition in the United States held each fall, designed to help interest middle school and high school students in possible engineering careers. The games are similar in scale to those of the FIRST Tech Challenge.
Diamond Bar High School (DBHS) is a high school located in Diamond Bar, California as part of the Walnut Valley Unified School District. The school mascot is the Brahma, and the school colors are purple and gold. Diamond Bar High School students participate in programs such as Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB). During the school year, DBHS received an Academic Performance Index of 870, and 97% of students passed the California High School Exit Exam in 2008-2009. The Brahma Athletic teams will compete in the Palomares League of the CIF Southern Section in 2014-15.
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly known as FIRST Vex Challenge, is a robotics competition for students in grades 7–12 to compete head to head, by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams. FIRST Tech Challenge is the one of the four major robotics programs organized by FIRST, which its other three programs include FIRST Lego League Explore, FIRST Lego League Challenge, and FIRST Robotics Competition.
RoboJackets is a group of Georgia Tech students, faculty, and alumni that aims to enhance the understanding of the field of robotics and its applications. The team also strives to increase of the number of students exposed to it. The group, located in the Student Competition Center, allows students to engage in a wide range of engineering-related activities, and has members from almost every engineering major of study offered at Georgia Tech. Students work collaboratively in a group environment and have the abilities to pursue projects on their own.
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.
Staten Island Technical High School, commonly called Staten Island Tech or SITHS, was founded in 1988. Located in Staten Island, New York City, the public magnet, specialized high school is operated by the New York City Department of Education. It consistently ranks among the best schools in New York City in graduation rate, Regents test scores, and attendance. The school ranks #2 in New York State and #15 in the nation. Admission to SITHS is determined through an applicant's score on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test.
The Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy, or just Collegiate Academy or Academy High School, is located in midtown Erie, Pennsylvania. The school is housed in the former Academy High School building, which reopened in September 1992 as Collegiate Academy. The school boasts a 100% college acceptance rate among recent graduates.
Kealakehe High School is a public high school located in Kailua CDP, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It has the largest geographic school attendance boundary in the state and covers a geographic district 40 miles (64 km) wide, encompassing the communities of Kailua-Kona, Hōlualoa, Waikōloa, and Puakō. The school motto is "Harmony and unity through dynamic education and community for everyone, every time."
Lunacy is the game for the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition. Announced on January 3, 2009, the name and some of the features of the game honor the 40th anniversary of the first manned mission to the Moon. It is FRC's 18th game. This is the first FRC competition to use the cRIO Mobile Device Controller control system from National Instruments. The driver station introduced for 2009 was the Kwikbyte DS, which was replaced in 2010 by the Classmate PC.
Breakaway is the game for the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition, announced on January 9, 2010. Robots direct soccer balls into goals, traverse "bumps" in the field, suspend themselves and each other on towers, and/or go through a tunnel located in the center of the field.
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is an international youth organization that operates the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST LEGO League Challenge, FIRST LEGO League Explore, FIRST LEGO League Discover, and FIRST Tech Challenge competitions. Founded by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers in 1989, its expressed goal is to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. Its philosophy is expressed by the organization as Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism. FIRST also operates FIRST Place, a research facility at FIRST Headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire, where it holds educational programs and day camps for students and teachers.
Beach Cities Robotics is a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team from the South Bay area in Southern California. Team is composed of members from both Mira Costa High School and Redondo Union High School.
Wayne Chang is an American entrepreneur, angel investor, film producer, and philanthropist. He is best known for founding Crashlytics, a startup acquired by Twitter in 2013; creating a filesharing network called i2hub; making seed investments in companies including JetSmarter, Draftkings, and Gusto; and his lawsuit against the Winklevoss brothers.
Team 1717, D’Penguineers, were a FIRST Robotics team associated with the Dos Pueblos High School Engineering Academy (DPEA) in Goleta, California. D’Penguineers have won multiple awards at the regional and international levels of the FIRST Robotics Competition, and participate regularly in outreach programs for junior high and elementary schools. The team was highlighted in the book The New Cool.
Logo Motion is the 2011 FIRST Robotics Competition game. Playing pieces are inner tubes shaped like the components of the FIRST logo. The primary objective of the game is to place them on racks to gain points. In the endgame, robots deploy smaller robots ("minibots") to climb a tower. Minibots must be made from the FIRST Tech Challenge kit of parts. The game celebrates the 20th season of the FRC and is also meant to commemorate the artist Jack Kamen, who designed the original FIRST logo.
Rebound Rumble is the 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition game. It is styled similarly to basketball.
Block Party!, released on September 7, 2013, is the 2013–2014 robotics competition for FIRST Tech Challenge. In the competition, two alliances, each consisting of two teams, compete to score blocks in plastic crates atop alliance-colored pendulums. Block Party! is the ninth FTC challenge.
Plano ISD Academy High School, commonly referred to as Academy High School, is a STEAM, interdisciplinary and project-based learning high school. The school serves students from grades 9-12. This school is not a regular secondary school because this school uses a selection process to draw eighth graders from various middle schools in Plano ISD. The school is an alternative to the regular high school experience by offering collaborative team projects, more STEAM classes and the ability to attend classes without structured class periods. This school is one of the three Academy Programs in Plano ISD. The others are the Plano ISD Health Sciences Academy and The IB World School at Plano East.
The Gene A. Buinger Career and Technical Education Academy is a public technical high school in Bedford, Texas. The school serves grade levels 10–12 and is part of the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District.
Rover Ruckus, officially known as Rover Ruckus Presented by Qualcomm for sponsorship reasons, is the FIRST Tech Challenge game for the 2018–2019 season. In the competition, two alliances of two teams each compete to collect minerals and place them into the cargo holes of the lander. Rover Ruckus is the fourteenth FTC game.
