Robotic Nation Evidence

Last year I was able to go to the FIRST robotics competition in Atlanta. You can read my article on it Here. You can also learn more about FIRST, the robots and the annual competition in this 4-part video:

• FIRST video part 1
  
• FIRST video part 2
  
• FIRST video part 3
  
• FIRST video part 4

Right about now, the teams of students for this year's competition are finishing their robots and packing them up for regional competitions. There are lots of press releases and news stories starting to surface.

The thing that is amazing about FIRST is that high school students are building highly mobile, articulate and rugged robotic chassis on shoestring budgets. And it is not "one or two" high school students -- it is thousands of them. And they are doing it on a 6-week timeline.

If you want to see videos on this year's challenge, go to this page and scroll down toward the bottom.

If you have a chance to go to the competition in Atlanta or one of the regional competitions, you should consider it. It is pretty amazing.

Here are some of the articles coming out right now on various FIRST teams:

• Students send their robot into battle
  
• MB students aim for 'revenge' in robot contest
  
• Hub students eye robot as chance to win big
  
• Robot takes form in Bacon lab