History of FIRST®
FIRST's logo created by Dean Kamen's father, Jack Kamen
FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, the man popularly known for inventing the Segway®.
After seeing how youth were more interested in the entertainment industry than in vital careers in math and science, Dean decided to create an organization
that would cater to youth and allow them to explore and become inspired by engineering. It would be competition based, using the successful sports model. But, instead of focusing on exercising the muscles, it would exercise the mind.
In 1992, teams of high school students gathered in a New Hampshire school's gym to rise to the challenge of the inaugural
FIRST Robotics Competition. There were 28 teams present. Fast forward more than twenty years later to 2012. An estimated 2,081 international teams are registered to participate in the
twenty-first game, Rebound Rumble™. In addition to the growth of
FRC,
FIRST has added
three more programs that serve ages 6-14.
Want to know more about the history of
FIRST? Please visit
USFIRST.org.
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