TechAction Foundation is a Maryland non-profit.  Its mission is to empower students’ success in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  This is achieved by providing and supporting opportunities for student teams to compete in STEM tournaments as well as hosting educational STEM programming.

TechAction Foundation is built around three core pillars that enable students to realize their full potential:

Education - facilitating learning through hands-on activities, and building connections with STEM professionals

Competition - working towards a common goal in a team environment with real deadlines, budgets and the gift of failure

Community - building and strengthening a self sufficient STEM community

These goals are achieved primarily through supporting the FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics program and hosting the off-season FTC tournament, the Maryland Tech Invitational (MTI).  

Why the focus on FIRST® Tech Challenge? See FTC Impact for a snapshot of the powerful and positive results students realize with this program. 

The Maryland Tech Invitational is the largest off-season tournament that brings together FTC teams from around the world. Only teams who have demonstrated excellence in engineering are invited to this highly competitive tournament.  Through the MTI, TechAction supports FTC teams continuation in the program.  This is achieved by providing cash and in-kind awards to be used by MTI teams in the following season.  

The teams who attend the MTI are typically leaders in their community. They provide workshops, mentorship and volunteers to support their FTC state program. By powering these teams, TechAction bolsters FTC communities throughout the world. 

The MTI connects students with STEM professionals with the MTI STEM Exposition. This enrichment program enables MTI participants to learn first hand from the scientists and engineers who work on cutting edge projects. This is particularly important for those team members who come from communities who do not have access to the type of high quality STEM institutions found in Maryland/DC.  

Another reason to support the Maryland Tech Invitational is that it gives local tech companies the opportunity to market their internship programs to strongly motivated STEM students. These are the students the top STEM companies want to engage with and bring into their workforce.  See MTI Intern Networking Program for more details. 

TechAction’s secondary objective is to create a grant program for local FTC teams in need.  This two pronged approach, providing grants for experienced teams and grants for less experienced local teams, strengthens the FIRST Tech Challenge community, thereby increasing the reach of this first class STEM program to more students.  For information on TAF grants see Maryland Team Grants.