Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
More than 750 high school students K-12 students from South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee will visit Anderson March 9-12 for the Electric City Regional at the Anderson Sports and Entertainment Center to compete in South Carolina’s only FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC).
This year’s FRC game, sponsored by Boeing, is called RAPID REACT, and attending teams are being given two months to design, prototype, build, test, code, and refine their 100+ lb. robots before facing each other at the Electric City Regional to vie for a spot at the FRC Championship.
Teams compete in two alliances of three robots each to intake ‘cargo’ from the Terminal and score it in either the lower or upper Hub before climbing up to 8 feet in the Hangar. The matches last 2.5 minutes and are played on a field just a bit smaller than a basketball court. The top two teams on the winning alliance will advance to the FIRST® Robotics Competition Championship in Houston, Texas, April 20-23, where they will compete against teams from all around the world.
The event will be livestreamed on the FIRST SC Twitch channel.
Students who participate in FIRST® Robotics Competition are also eligible for more than $80 million in college scholarships provided by participating universities and sponsors. To learn more about FRC visit: firstinspires.org.
Teams will also contend for STEM awards recognizing innovation in programming, design, entrepreneurship, and manufacturing, excellence in community outreach.
Volunteers are always welcome. To volunteer, contact FIRST SC Volunteer Coordinator, Carla Rickenbaker.
FIRST® is a global, nonprofit robotics community that prepares young people for the future through exciting and accessible k-12 robotics competitions.