Borrowing a page from the sports playbook, The first-ever Minnesota Regional FIRST Robotics Competition uses the excitement of sports to promote science, technology, engineering and math in a fun and interactive way.
This weekend, the first-ever Minnesota Regional FIRST Robotics Competition kicks of at the University of Minnesota's Williams Arena and Sports Pavilion. The event is free and open to the public.
The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition challenges each team of high school students and their mentors to build a robot in six weeks and enter the robot in competitions designed by a committee of engineers and other professionals.
Winning teams from the regional event will advance to the national championship April 17-19 in Atlanta.
Just two years ago, there were only two FIRST Robotics teams in Minnesota. Due to sponsorships from the University of Minnesota and corporations such as Medtronic, Boston Scientific, 3M, St. Jude Medical, Lockheed Martin, General Mills, Cargill, Best Buy, BAE Systems and others, the number of robotics teams in Minnesota has more than tripled from 16 teams last year to 54 teams this year. Worldwide there are more than 1,500 FIRST Robotics teams.
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