We Would Like to Thank: Ortho Clincal Diagnostics - Branchburg Education Foundation - ENK Solutions - Dr. Victor Bauer - Donald Bowers - Branchburg Shoprite - Mr. Feng Li - AstraZeneca - Sanofi-Aventis - Mr. Glenn Douma

Team 102

SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL ROBOTICS

Team 102 Gearheads

What is FIRST®?

FIRST® ("For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology") is an intellectual organization that inspires an interest in young people for science, technology, engineering, and math. FIRST® was founded by Dean Kamen, a well known inventor and advocate of science and technology. When Mr. Kamen founded FIRST®, he established two main principles that have guided FIRST® in all it does:

• The FIRST® Vision: "To create a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes"
• Gracious Professionalism: "A way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. Gracious professionals learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process."

What Does FIRST® Do?

FIRST® organizes and hosts five programs for people of all different ages. These programs are getting more and more people involved in science and technology.

FIRST® Robotics, a division of FIRST®, is a high school robotics league that involves over 100,000 high school students from across the world in an annual robotics competition. Each season starts the very first weekend of January at the Kick Off where over a thousand participating high school teams learn the new year's challenge. With the help of over 60,000 volunteers, 2,000 corporations, from 7 countries (Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, U.K., & U.S.A.), these teams build robots in 6 weeks from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST® and include boundaries such as weight and height limits. These students participate using not only science and technology skills, but also cooperation, self-confidence, and life skills to build about 10,000 robots that compete at 37 regional events in Brazil, Canada, Israel, and the United States. This entertaining and innovative organization was created to help motivate people to pursue education and career opportunities while gaining the experience of dealing with focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring and project deadlines.