Florida's ROBOTICON and How to Connect FIRST With Your Community

ROBOTICON Tampa Bay, now in its 5^th year, is a collaborative effort of several Tampa Bay organizations and partners, including FIRST Affiliate Partners, Alumni and volunteers.  Led by Eureka! Factory, in partnership with the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation, ROBOTICON is a K-12 STEAM education showcase, featuring all four FIRST programs, and academic, engineering and industry exhibits for a weekend long celebration of science and technology.

The mission of ROBOTICON is to increase public awareness of and engagement in, the power of hands on, mentor driven youth engineering and robotics programs like FIRST, and to provide participating youth with a low stress, high-quality event with opportunities for skill building, networking, and college and career readiness experiences.

When we originally organized ROBOTICON, I was the Regional Director for Central Florida and simply modeled the off-season event on a scaled back version of the Orlando Regional.  We quickly discovered a community appetite for a robust large-scale robotics event.  With just two Regional events in a state the size of Florida, a local off-season competition provides a unique and exciting event for local residents, a way for FIRST teams to see all the programs in context, and a publicity boon for the county and event partners eager to align themselves with a high profile youth academic program like FIRST that provides a talent pipeline for area industry and business.

Over time, ROBOTICON became an educational proving ground, as we added related engineering exhibits and some fun opportunities like mentor and human matches (a great way to explain the games to the public), a live interview show called FIRST Looks (firstlooks.tv), hosted by PLuGHiTz Live Radio, a podcast company owned by a FIRST alumnus, and eventually, all four programs in what�s become a giant robotics science fair.  Last year, after having outgrown the sports arena at the University of Tampa, we moved the event to the University of South Florida Sun Dome Arena, a more expensive venture, but one which has amped up the experience for students and the public, and thrilled the university, as over 2000 people came through the gates last year to see the games, enjoy the exhibits, and experience the campus.

Hosting this informal off-season and early season event for FIRST teams and the local community has created some great opportunities for youth and Tampa Bay:

• ROBOTICON built a support base for the Advanced Manufacturing & Robotics Center (AMRoC), seeded through an Argosy Foundation grant, currently under development in Tampa Bay.
• The free event annually introduces hundreds of people to FIRST and high energy project based learning, often for the first time.
• It inspires the creation of new teams, and attracts new volunteers, mentors and donors for teams, schools, events and programs. Every year, new event sponsors come on board, potentially connecting more companies and individuals with FIRST teams and programs, and we�ve used ROBOTICON as a jumping off point for everything from kick off events to engaging training and mentoring experiences for teams.
• It gives area Alumni an opportunity to help organize a fun event, and to try out for different positions like field announcer or pit admin, and inspire greater participation at official events.
• It gives participating youth an unparalleled opportunity to learn together, across all programs, embraced by the appreciative community in which they live.

The value of this type of hyperlocal event can�t be overstated.  An event doesn�t have to be as big as ROBOTICON to have impact.  A scaled down version in a local high school gym, with a complement of FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST LEGO League and FIRST LEGO League Jr teams , with some exhibits from local businesses and educational organizations is all it takes to start building your support base.

And you don�t even really need an FIRST Robotics Competition field � which can be challenging to secure - to have a powerful experience for participants.  Create a skills course or have special challenges for previous season robots, offer workshops and invite community business leaders to host them, network with local colleges and universities, host an informal luncheon and pair up local business leaders with FIRST ambassadors, just like at an event, so that they have the opportunity to be inspired by sincere and authentic youth and to understand the value of supporting them.

You can find information on hosting an Off Season event here: https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/frc/off-season-eventsand you can browse the ROBOTICON.net website to see programs and news about the event.  

The more opportunities youth have to play at learning, the better. And the more opportunities the general public has to see programs like FIRST in action, the better. Competitions don�t have to be high level, formal events to have academic or social impact.  They just have to be visible and accessible.

Written by Terri Willingham Director, Eureka Factory and Vice Chair, Foundation for Community Driven Innovation