FIRST Robotics Finger Lakes Regional launches ‘Destination Deep Space’ on March 15 & 16

All systems will be “GO” as the FIRST Robotics Finger Lakes Regional competition takes place on Friday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16, at the Gordon Field House at Rochester Institute of Technology. Robotics teams of students, teachers and mentors will gather to participate in “Destination: Deep Space” — the newest competition game, to commemorate the 50 years since the first moon landing.

Opening ceremonies begin each day at 8:30 a.m. with team matches running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Finals and event awards take place on Saturday after 5 p.m. Of the 50 teams registered, the majority are from New York with several others from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Also registered are five international teams from Canada, Brazil, Mexico and China.

“The competition themes and technology challenges continue to be both interesting and real tests of students’ abilities to work well together and build robots,” said Glen Pearson, Finger Lakes Regional director. “We can relate to the space race and the impression it made on generations of people; what kind of impression will technology make on this generation of young people? FIRST Robotics encourages them to build the skills they’ll need to answer that question.”

FIRST—For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology—also referred to as a “sport for the mind,” began in 1989 to spark interest in science through solving engineering problems in a friendly, yet intense competition. Both FIRST and NASA mark significant milestones in 2019 with the moon landing in 1968 and FIRST celebrating 30 years of competitions. 

Winners from regional competitions across the globe participate in the 2019 FIRST Championships April 17-20, 2019, in Houston and April 24-27, 2019, in Detroit. FIRST holds two championships in order to give more teams a chance to qualify and participate, Pearson explained. Each championship will be open to 400 teams that qualify in local competitions. Winners from the Finger Lakes Regional will compete in Detroit.

The regional event is free and open to the public. More information about the Finger Lakes Region FIRST Robotics Competition can be found at www.upstatenyfirst.org  and www.rit.edu/gcr/firstrobotics. FIRST Robotics will host several space-themed competitions in the next few months: Mission Moon (ages 6-10) Into Orbit (ages 9-14), Rover Ruckus (ages 12-18) and Destination: Deep Space (ages 14-18). Each year, more than 500,000 students from 60,000 teams around the world participate in FIRST Robotics programs.