NY FIRST Robotics Competition at Javits Center

The thirteenth annual FIRST Robotics competition took place this weekend in the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate, and there was a bit of rescheduling as a result. The competition was a three day event, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The photos below are from Friday March 8, 2013.

The FIRST Robotics program is divided into three parts: LEGO Robotics Challenge for middle school students, FTC – FIRST Tech Challenge for beginner high school students, and FRC- FIRST Robotics Challenge for the more advanced high school teams.

There was plenty of team spirit and team colors at the event.

Tech Knights got creative with NYC metrocards. With the MTA starting to charge for metrocards, this costume is soon to become quite pricey.

Only one Jewish school was spotted at the competition – MTA high school – who participated in the FIRST Tech Challenge.

Originally the FTC (as well as many other exciting programs and competitions) was scheduled for Saturday which makes it impossible for Jewish orthodox schools to participate in these important events. As a result of some rescheduling, the FTC competition was moved to Friday giving their team a chance to compete against 78 other teams which turned out for this year’s event.

The team discussing some issues with Ruvein Levy, their mentor.

Unfortunately the MTA team had a few glitches and didn’t do that well but it’s the experience that is really valuable.

The team working fast to fix a problem with their robot.

At the same time the FIRST Robotics Challenge was taking place on the other side of the room. Only some six weeks earlier were the teams notified of the actual challenge for this year.