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It�s time to roll out our support for the FIRST Tech Challenge teams for the 2018-2019 school year.  Apply for sponsorship for your FIRST Tech Challenge team directly from SOLIDWORKS .  Last year, SOLIDWORKS sponsored the first FIRST Robotics Competition Regional in Istanbul, Turkey, and then attended the FIRST Championships.   In April, we were so excited to see hundreds of teams descended on Detroit, Michigan and Houston, Texas. Students from around the world competed in some of the most exciting STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) events: The FIRST  Championships.  We visited with many FIRST Tech Challenge teams.  Team  4347 Nano Gurus impressed us with their robot design.  The Nano Gurus explained how they used SOLIDWORKS to create the models of their robot. We also met with international team 14183 from the Netherlands to talk about their 3D printed robot components. O ur support and celebration for FIRST teams continues,...

Whew, what a season - capped off by the first ever Festival of Champions right here in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Thanks to everyone who made this year a success. The students were tremendous and our program grew for the 12th year in a row. I�ve been with FIRST for 10 years and I�m still amazed by the passion, drive, and intellect demonstrated by our teams. Our planet faces big problems, but with this generation I have great confidence we will meet those challenges. Our volunteers share this hope, it�s why they dedicate millions of person-hours each year to make this possible. Although they may not have had FIRST when they were young, they see the critical need, and the amazing benefits. FIRST Tech Challenge alone held over 800 events last season and every single one depended on these outstanding volunteers. I know of no other organization in the world that attracts such passionate, and intelligent folks. Finally, a huge thank you to the FIRST Tech Challenge staff. Believe it or n...

To the FIRST Tech Challenge program and whoever else's eyes this message finds its way to:               Oh, where to begin? I suppose a brief introduction. My name is Isaac and I am a Senior at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. For years, I would stay after school, sit in the cafeteria, and see this group of kids working on something, which appeared to a robot of some kind. Last year is when I really started to understand. Some of my closest friends are on Walnut's FTC team, 6133 THE NUTS!, and through my school and through some team bragging of how amazing it was, I became extremely interested. Still I decided to ignore whatever this robotics team was, as it didn't seem to be the thing for me. How wrong I was! THE NUTS! went to Worlds that year, and came home to Walnut as heroes.         A year passed, and I was asked to help set up for a regional FIRST Tech Challenge competition. I agreed, knowing that my fr...

We are so excited about the new website, www.firstinspires.org . It looks so awesome! But where's all the stuff? It's still there, but moving over to the new website, we re-organized and cleaned up to make it more user-friendly. Let's take a brief tour through the new website and help you locate what you need. When you arrive at the FIRST website , click on Programs, hover over FIRST Tech Challenge, and select a category to get to the FIRST Tech Challenge program pages . Here you will find information about the Game, Season, Starting a Team, Budget, Social Media, and more. But those pages are really geared more toward folks who are new to FIRST and FIRST Tech Challenge; the resources and materials for Team, Mentors, and Volunteers is located in the Resource Library . The Resource Library houses individual documents and lists of resources. We've organized most of the resources into lists, such as: Start a Team Resources Game and Season Info Volunteer Resources and l...

One of the most unique aspects of FIRST Tech Challenge is how much our teams are invested in the FIRST Tech Challenge Community. Not only do they display pride and passion at events, but also work extremely hard to showcase both an online presence and one in their community. The amazing growth that FIRST Tech Challenge has experienced over the years is mainly due to the efforts of teams growing other teams. FIRST Tech Challenge participants understand the value of taking part in a team: the learning, the competition, and of course the sense of belonging.  To help recognize the efforts our Teams are doing in the field, FIRST Tech Challenge has created virtual badges that can be utilized by Teams on their online applications (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Has your team grown another team? 5 teams? 10 teams? Show off these accomplishments by downloading your badges on the Outreach & Marketing Resources list under "Website and Online Resources". Keep up the incredible wor...

You�d be hard pressed to find someone these days who is NOT using at least one social media channel some of the time. It is one of the ways that modern humans are connecting with each other and sharing information. Businesses and organizations have also found it useful in sharing news and/or tips or tricks.  At FIRST Tech Challenge , we use social media to share information and resources, but most importantly to keep our community connected. We know lots of teams are using it, too, to share what they�re doing, to spread the word about FIRST , and to help promote their team.    To that end, we�ve pulled together a few recommendations to help you use your social media to achieve your team�s goals. This document, FTC Social Media Guidelines and Recommendations , is on the FTC Team Resources webpage under "Outreach and Marketing." In the guide, we briefly walk you through the process of planning out how you would like to use social media and also discuss ways to ensure suc...