COLUMBIA, S.C. — Twenty seven robotics teams consisting of a total of 240 middle and high school students throughout South Carolina will come together on February 26 at Dreher High School in Columbia to determine which team created the best robot for the FIRST Tech Challenge.
The competition is set by FIRST, a robotics community whose mission it is to prepare students for the future, and had a global mission to make STEM education more accessible and fun for students ages PreK-18.
This year's challenge was designed to give students an introduction to the logistics, difficulties, and constraints in building and maintaining supply chain delivery in a world-wide economy. Teams work together to build a robot while learning communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Robots will have to navigate a complex transportation system in order to load and deliver different types of freight -- boxes, balls, and rubber ducks -- to different warehouse locations. Teams will be racing against the clock while being careful to follow different warehouse operations in order to earn points.
The top two teams will advance to the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in Houston, Texas, in April.
The competition at Dreher begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 26. and is free and open to the public. Masks will be required, food will be available for purchase at the event.
Seven teams from the Midlands will be competing: Falcon Force, Garnet Squadron, and Heathwood Hall Robotics from Columbia; RocketForge from Winnsboro; The Highlighters and Sea Dawgs from Lugoff; and Robodogs from Newberry. Other teams hail from the Upstate and Lowcountry.
