NASA, with corporate and institutional partners, is sponsoring 280 student teams competing in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics national championship. The competition, April 11-12 at Reliant Park in Houston, is expected to attract more than 20,000 U.S. and international participants.
FIRST is an international program to inspire interest in the sciences and to challenge students to use their creativity, knowledge, and leadership skills to build robots for competition against other robots. NASA supports teams through mentoring and grants. NASA sponsored seven of 23 regional competitions and more than 200 of 800 local teams. Astronaut Leland Melvin, co-manger of NASA’s Educator Astronaut Program, will attend the competition and will be available for interviews.
NASA TV will broadcast FIRST activities April 11 from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. EDT, and April 12 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT. NASA TV is on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization, at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.
For more information about FIRST on the Internet, visit:
www.usfirst.org