GVSU hosts robotics competition

Teams of high school students will design and building robots to compete against each other during an event at Grand Valley State University.

Grand Valley State University will host the West Michigan FIRST Robotics Regional competition beginning Friday, March 30 with the finals on Saturday, March 31. FIRST stands For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. In the FIRST competition, teams of high school students have six weeks to design, build, and ship a functioning robot to compete in a cross between an athletic event, rock concert, and robot competition. This year, 54 teams from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and even Brazil will compete.

FIRST Robotics helps students get hands-on experience solving real-world problems. They get to discover the excitement and rewards of science and technology careers. Since the program was founded in 1989, it has grown from 28 teams to more than 1,300. Statistics show that those students are significantly more likely to go to college, and they are twice as likely to major in science and engineering. And once they get to college, many will be able to take advantage of scholarships for FIRST participants. Grand Valley has one, as do nearly 70 other colleges and universities -- with a total of $8 million dollars in scholarships available nationwide.

FIRST founder Dean Kamen says his vision for the competition was to create a world where science and technology are celebrated, and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes. The students work alongside mentors to bring their ideas to life. The mentors are engineers and technicians who volunteer their time to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, areas critical to the U.S.'s survival in the global economy.

The event is free and open to the public, and media coverage is encouraged. It runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Fieldhouse Arena on Grand Valley’s Allendale Campus.