FIRST

FIRST stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1992 as a way of getting high school students involved in and excited about science and technology. The program involves teams of mentors and high school students that collaborate to design and build a robot in six weeks. This robot is built for the purpose of playing a game that is designed and implemented by FIRST. The game changes from year to year and is announced annually at a nationally simulcast kickoff event in January. Regional competitions take place around the world; FIRST is an international organization that currently has teams from:

Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

However, only Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States have FRC teams.

As of 2007, FIRST includes:

• FRC
• FVC
• FLL
• JFLL

The highest honor bestowed in FIRST is the Chairman's Award, which is given to the team that best manifests the FIRST spirit of gracious professionalism. Regional Chairman's Award winners then compete at the national level for the National Chairman's Award.

(quoted from FIRSTwiki)

The Team

Our team started in 1996 as a MESA club (Math Engineering and Science Achievement) sponsored by The Applied Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University. The club was involved in small science projects and science education. The Club built a solar electric race car and entered the Solar Race in Topeka, Kansas sponsored by Crowder College. The team participated in three races, winning the teamwork award once.

In November of 2001, clubs members attended a conference of the National Society of Black Engineers where they observed a presentation of a FIRST robotics team. At the event the club members decided to become a FIRST team, and were able to acquire NASA funding. In January of 2002 the club became a member of FIRST Robotics and was given team number 768.

The team participated in the 2002 regional competition in Richmond, Virginia and the 2003 regional competition in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2004 the Technowarriors participated in competitions in Trenton, New Jersey, Annapolis, Maryland, and Atlanta, Georgia. In 2005 the team participated in many events including the Chesapeake regional in Annapolis, and the championship tournament in Atlanta, Georgia.

2006 led the Technowarriors to the Chesapeake regionals and the Georgia Championship once again, with our robot, Triple Threat, winning the coveted Sportsmanship Award in Chesapeake. In the 2007 Finger Lakes Regional, the team reached the Quarterfinals. Afterwards, in the Chesapeake Regionals, the team reached the semifinals, and won the Engineering Inspiration Award. Following the Chesapeake Regionals, the Technowarriors reached the Quarterfinals of the Archimedes Field in the Georgia Championships, a feat reached only once by another Maryland team (which has now disbanded). The team attended Robotfest and Congress' "FIRST on Capitol Hill" event, as well as several off-season events afterwards.

One of these off-season events was the Battle o' Baltimore, organized for it's first year by the Baltimore Area Alliance, a group of Maryland teams formed in early '07; the Technowarriors are an alliance member. Another event, Pennslyvania's Ramp Riot, saw the Technowarriors reaching the final round of competition before falling out, by a very slim margin.