What is First Tech Challenge?

FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) is a robotics competition where teams build robots which fit in an 18 inch cube to compete in a game against other teams. The game changes each season, so teams must design, build, and program a completely different robot every year. The season starts in mid September, and the first qualifier is around December. Matches are played on a 12x12 foot foam tile field, where two alliances, red and blue, consisting of two teams each, compete to score more points than the other alliance before the time runs out. Each match is 2 minutes and 30 seconds long with the first 30 seconds being the autonomous stage, the last 2 minutes being the Tele-op stage, and the last 30 seconds of tele-op being end-game. In the autonomous period, the robot is run by only pre-programmed instructions, completing tasks without any human input using sensors and computer vision to make decisions. Once the autonomous period is over, the Tele-op stage begins where your drivers use two controllers to control the robot and score points. the last 30 seconds of the match is end-game, where there are additional ways to score points that can only be done in this part of the match.

But besides the competition and the robots, FIRST is about inspiring young people to be science and technology leaders and the innovators