More than 10,000 students from around the world competed in the annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship, held at the end of April in St. Louis, Missouri. The event’s highlight was the final round of the FIRST Robotics Competition for ages 14 to 18, which pitted two Alliances made up of three teams each against each other in the Ultimate Ascent challenge. Alliances had two minutes and 15 seconds to get as many flying discs as possible into their goals with the robots they’d built in just six weeks. The winning Alliance consisted of THEORY6 from Mississauga, Ontario; The Coyotes from Toronto, Ontario; and Texas Torque from The Woodlands, Texas. A crowd of 25,000 witnessed the final match at the Edward Jones Dome.
Additional competitions included the FIRST LEGO League for ages 9 to 14; Junior FIRST LEGO League for ages 6 to 9; and FIRST Tech Challenge for ages 12 to 18. In all, nearly 650 teams from 37 countries participated. Teams received awards for their innovation, teamwork, professionalism and other positive attributes in addition to their success in competition.
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