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Annual FIRST Robotics Competition Returns to Rocket City April 6-8

The Rocket City Regional - Alabama’s annual FIRST Robotics Competition - will be held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 6-8 at the Von Braun Center South Hall in Huntsville, Alabama.

The Rocket City Regional – Alabama’s annual FIRST Robotics Competition – will be held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 6-8 at the Von Braun Center South Hall in Huntsville, Alabama. This event is free and open to the media, public, and children.

More than 1,000 high school students on 50 teams from 15 states, Mexico, and Brazil will compete in a new robotics game called “CHARGED UP.”

A team looks on as they work with their robot to toss orange balls into the area for the FIRST Robotics competition.
Student teams compete in the Rocket City Regional – a FIRST Robotics competition – held in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA and its Robotics Alliance Project provide grants for high school teams and support for FIRST.
Credits: NASA

Opening ceremonies begin at 8:30 a.m. CDT on Friday and Saturday only, with qualification matches underway at 9 a.m. each day. The Friday awards ceremony will begin at 6 p.m., while the Saturday awards ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m.

News media interested in covering this event should contact Joel Wallace, public affairs officer in the Marshall Office of Communications, at 256.544.0034 or joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov; or Dana Hobbs, senior manager of FIRST Robotics Competition, at 256.529.9230 or dhobbs@firstinspires.org, no later than 4 p.m. Thursday, April 6.

About FIRST Robotics

FIRST Robotics is a global robotics competition for students in grades 9-12. Teams are challenged to raise funds, design a team brand, hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-sized robots to play a difficult field game against competitors.

District and regional competitions – such as the Rocket City Regional – are held across the country during March and April, providing teams a chance to qualify for the 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship events held in late April in Houston.

NASA and its Robotics Alliance Project provide grants for high school teams and support for FIRST Robotics Competition to address the critical national shortage of students pursuing STEM careers. This FIRST Robotics Competition is supported by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement.

For Rocket City Regional event information, visit: http://firstinalabama.org/events/frc-events

For more information about Marshall’s support for education programs, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/marshall/home/index.html

Joel Wallace 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034 
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov

Christopher Blair 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034 
christopher.e.blair@nasa.gov