FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is one of FIRST's two high school programs. The program teams students with mentors and professionals that work together to accomplish difficult engineering tasks.

In FRC, student teams build, program and compete with 120lb robots made of mostly aluminum, polycarbonate, and other real-world high tech materials. Students learn robot design concepts, such as professional CAD software (computer-aided design software, an industry standard for designing and prototyping on a computer), machining, welding, building the robot itself, and programming the robot in professional programming languages. These skills are usually taught in college courses or not at all, and the amount of practical experience gained during FRC is irreplaceable.

In addition to all this, students also learn how to fundraise, communicate with professionals and businesses, manage a team or a division of a team, publicize, and manage the finances of the team, preparing them for future careers and college.

The program lasts from January to March / April of each year. Build season starts with the FRC kick-off in late winter and lasts only six weeks. This gives each team six weeks to completely design, manufacture, and program a large and complicated robot. At the end of build season, there is the regional competition, and for the teams that go on, international competitions. Because build season is so short, we start training new members in their chosen areas of focus (e.g. mechanical, programming…) through a number of exercises and small fun projects long before the build season starts, so that they will be prepared for the short and intensive build season.

This program takes a lot of money to run, so if you like this program and what we are doing to inspire students to learn about technology and participate in future innovation, consider donating some money to help us keep our ability to continue our program, especially as we are lacking a few vital tools (Milling machine, Lathe) that we would require to effectively and efficiently build the robot.

Check out FRC’s past robots and game challenges.