For high school students interested in science, technology, computers, design, and robots, the FIRST Robotics Competition is a perfect outlet for their creativity.  FIRST is a not-for-profit organization that was founded in 1989 to inspire young people.

The challenge changes every year. However, the expectation is that students will work with their adult mentors to build robots that can complete a task.

Work is done in teams which are given a standard set of parts and instructions at the beginning of January. They then have six weeks to construct a competitive robot.

For participants in the FIRST Robotics Competition and Scholarship Program there are over 100 scholarships associated with this program, including several full tuition scholarships at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  However, there are many other scholarships that are in the $40,000 range. The scholarship deadlines vary throughout the year, so you need to pay careful attention to the website. Scholarships are for high school juniors, seniors and for current college students.