40 Fun Facts About FIRST Tech Challenge

Which inventor founded FIRST, the youth robotics organization that runs FIRST Tech Challenge?

Dean Kamen holds more than 1,000 patents, yet in 2010 he called FIRST the invention he is most proud of.

Which FIRST ethos asks rival teams to compete hard while treating each other with respect?

Gracious Professionalism is left loosely defined on purpose, so it can mean different things to different people. Lending parts to a team you will face later is a standard example.

Which toys did FIRST Tech Challenge robots knock onto the field by spinning carousels in Freight Frenzy?

Rubber ducks were the odd ones out in Freight Frenzy: far squishier than the plastic boxes and balls, and flung off if a carousel spun too fast.

Which film franchise partnered with FIRST for 2019–20, the season FIRST Tech Challenge played Skystone?

Star Wars owner Lucasfilm backed that whole season through its Force for Change initiative, while the bigger robots played Infinite Recharge.

Which language, also taught in AP Computer Science A, do FIRST Tech Challenge teams code robots in?

Java is the typed option; beginners can instead snap together graphical commands, and the same reusable kit runs either.

In which month does FIRST reveal each season's new FIRST Tech Challenge game at an event called Kickoff?

September kickoffs leave months to build: qualifying tournaments and regional or state championships run from October through March.

Which material are the 36 interlocking floor tiles of a FIRST Tech Challenge playing field made from?

Foam tiles lock together into a square 12 feet on each side, enclosed by a wall one foot high.

Which Texas city has hosted the FIRST Championship and its FIRST Tech Challenge finals alone since 2022?

Houston used to share the event with Detroit; since 2022 its George R. Brown Convention Center has staged the whole thing.

Which mobile operating system took over FIRST Tech Challenge robots when smartphones replaced LEGO bricks?

Android arrived in the 2015–16 season, first on ordinary phones mounted on the robot and later inside a purpose-built hub.

Which period opens every FIRST Tech Challenge match, with drivers forbidden to touch their controllers?

Autonomous lasts 30 seconds and runs on pre-written code alone; only afterwards do up to two drivers take over.

Which MIT professor co-created FIRST and based its robot contests on his popular 2.70 design class?

Woodie Flowers also hosted the PBS science series Scientific American Frontiers until Alan Alda replaced him in 1993.

Which top judged FIRST Tech Challenge award honors a team that excels at robot, outreach and teamwork alike?

Inspire is treated as the sum of every other judged award, so its winner is held up as the role model for other teams.

Which robot-kit brand appeared in FIRST Tech Challenge's original name during its first two seasons?

Vex kits gave the league its first name, FIRST Vex Challenge, until FIRST renamed it FIRST Tech Challenge in summer 2007.

Which pencil-and-paper game gave its layout to the upright peg rack in FIRST Tech Challenge's 2012–13 season?

Tic-tac-toe went vertical in Ring It Up!, a game in which more than 2,400 teams hung plastic rings on an upright rack of pegs.

Which chipmaker partnered with FIRST in 2015 to make smartphones the brains of FIRST Tech Challenge robots?

Qualcomm's deal put one phone on the robot and a second in the drivers' hands, linked by Wi-Fi Direct instead of a laptop.

What do FIRST Tech Challenge teams call informal practice events outside the official tournament structure?

Scrimmages count for nothing toward advancement, so teams use them to test robots and gain match experience.

Which camera-read markers from the University of Michigan help FIRST Tech Challenge robots locate themselves?

AprilTags work like a simplified QR code: each carries a numeric ID that tells a robot where it is and which way it is facing.

Which wheels, ringed with rollers set at 45 degrees, let many FIRST Tech Challenge robots slide sideways?

Mecanum wheels take their name from the Swedish company where engineer Bengt Ilon devised them, and the same design moves forklifts that need very tight maneuvering.

In which New Hampshire city is FIRST headquartered, near the school gym that hosted its first robot contest?

Manchester is home to FIRST Place, a headquarters that also runs day camps and classes for students and teachers.

Which city's Union Station hosted the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in the years up to 2017?

St. Louis put FIRST Tech Challenge in its historic railway terminal while the larger FIRST programs filled the Edward Jones Dome.

Which LEGO brick was the brain of FIRST Tech Challenge robots from 2008 until smartphones took over?

NXT bricks talked to a driver's laptop over Bluetooth, and extra controllers were added to get around the brick's limits.

Which aluminum building system did Pitsco create for FIRST Tech Challenge when its kit changed in 2008?

TETRIX came out of a partnership between Pitsco and LEGO's education division, and its first robots carried a LEGO brain.

Which aerospace company is the presenting sponsor in the full title of FIRST Tech Challenge's Decode?

RTX also presents Biobuzz, the game that followed Decode; earlier titles carried its former name, Raytheon Technologies.

Which red and blue plastic game pieces did FIRST Tech Challenge robots score on junctions in Powerplay?

Cones numbered 60 in all, 30 of each colour, and teams scored them on junctions to create a circuit.

Which two metals named the minerals that FIRST Tech Challenge robots sorted into a lander in Rover Ruckus?

Gold and silver minerals each had their own cargo hold, and robots could begin the match hanging from the lander itself.

What name does the FIRST Tech Challenge game Decode give the green and purple balls robots launch into goals?

Artifacts go into each alliance's own goal, and teams earn more by arranging them into patterns.

Which large inflatable did FIRST Tech Challenge robots hoist onto the center goal in Velocity Vortex?

Yoga ball lifts came at the end of a match in which robots also shot softball-size plastic balls into the same goals.

Which tier of US FIRST Tech Challenge tournament sat between state championships and Worlds until 2018?

Super-Regionals numbered four and lasted five seasons; scrapping them let each World Championship grow from 128 teams to 160.

Which bigger-robot league for high schoolers is FTC designed to prepare students to step up to?

FIRST Robotics Competition is the senior league: FIRST Tech Challenge was set up as the bridge to it from FIRST LEGO League.

Which word does the R in FIRST stand for, in a name that ends with Science and Technology?

Recognition reflects the organization's stated vision: a world where science and technology are celebrated.

What do FIRST Tech Challenge programmers call each program they select on the Driver Station to run a robot?

OpMode is short for operational mode, and a team picks which one the robot controller should execute during a match.

Which visual coding library, created at Google, powers FIRST Tech Challenge's drag-and-drop programming tool?

Blockly was developed inside Google from 2011 and released as free open-source software, and it also underpins Scratch and Code.org.

Which devices do FIRST Tech Challenge drivers plug into the Driver Hub to steer their robots?

Gamepads can be connected one or two at a time, since a robot may take input from up to two human drivers.

Which optional FIRST Tech Challenge award asks a team to submit a short video honoring a coach or mentor?

Compass videos show what sets that adult apart, and like other optional awards the prize does not help a team advance.

Which FIRST Tech Challenge award honors the team with the best written record of how it designed its robot?

Think rewards the write-up rather than the machine: judges look for the design process a team recorded while building.

Which actor, Polaris in the X-Men series The Gifted, was on a FIRST Tech Challenge team in Pasadena?

Emma Dumont went on to play Jackie Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, and spoke at the 2013 FIRST Championship.

Which extending mechanism let FIRST Tech Challenge robots raise crates over ten feet high in 2011–12?

Scissor lift robots ruled Bowled Over!, because the bonus for stacking crates had no upper limit and one raised crate could score hundreds of points.

Which written record must FIRST Tech Challenge teams submit to be considered for some judged awards?

The engineering portfolio is weighed alongside a structured interview, and judges also visit teams in the pits during the day.

Which Atlanta stadium hosted the FIRST Championship from 2004 to 2010?

The Georgia Dome welcomed fifty teams from the league that became FIRST Tech Challenge to the championship in spring 2006.

Which JetBrains language, Google's preferred choice for phone apps, can FIRST Tech Challenge teams also use?

Kotlin sits among the advanced topics in the official programming guides, well away from the beginner tutorials.