Burlington--On March 13, 30 teams of middle and high school-age students will compete in the Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge Championship.

Although the live event will be fully remote this year, the excitement surrounding this annual event remains high as youths demonstrate their innovation, creative thinking and skills in robotics. The public is invited to watch portions of the event at http://go.uvm.edu/vtftc21, beginning with the opening ceremony at 12:30 p.m.

The opening remarks will be followed by video replays and a Q & A session with several of the teams to analyze and discuss the performance and achievements of their robots. The awards ceremony will begin at 2 p.m.

Of the 30 teams scheduled to compete, 26 hail from Vermont, including two representing University of Vermont (UVM) Extension 4-H clubs. Other teams are from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

The FIRST Tech Challenge competition typically requires teams of up to 10 Grade 7-12 students to design, build, program and operate robots to complete a series of tasks in an alliance format in a head-to-head live competition. This year, given pandemic restrictions, teams instead will submit videos of their robot performing designated challenges, along with the scores from those matches, and an engineering portfolio that highlights their work throughout the season.

Teams will be eligible for awards based on interviews with judges and their portfolio. Interviews will take place in the morning prior to the opening ceremony.

A number of awards will be presented, including for best design, ingenuity, innovative thinking and teamwork, among other areas. The winner of the Inspire Award, given to the team that epitomizes all that the FIRST Tech Challenge program represents, will advance to the world championships, tentatively scheduled for Houston in mid-July and Detroit in early August. 

FIRST, which stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," is a program for young people, ages 5-18, with four age-based levels. Participants learn how to design, build and program robots using science, mathematics and technology. The program also helps them hone their communications, problem-solving, team-building, conflict resolution and other important life skills.

To learn more about the Vermont FIRST Tech Challenge Championship, sponsored annually by the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, go to www.uvm.edu/cems/first-uvm.