Jan. 3, 2013 – Twenty teams of Utah high school students will begin to design and build robots Saturday, Jan. 5 in West Valley City, Utah, during the kickoff of a regional robotics competition co-sponsored by the University of Utah.

More than 70 similar kickoffs are happening nationwide, with six others in Australia, Israel, Mexico and Canada. They all are part a six-week competition named For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST, that involves 2,550 teams with 52,000 high school students.

The Utah kickoff will be held at Hunter High School, 4200 S. 5600 West in West Valley City. The event is open to the public and news media, runs from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features robot demonstrations from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the school’s commons area.

Each team is given a kit containing motors, batteries, a control system and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. The teams then have six weeks to research, design and build their robots before the regional FIRST Robotics Competition held March 20-23 at the Maverick Center in West Valley City.

The championships will be held April 24-27 in St. Louis.

Founded in 1989 by Segway transporter inventor Dean Kamen, the FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual event challenging high school students – working with professional engineers – to design and build a robot of their own. Further details are available at: http://www.utfrc.utah.edu/ and www.usfirst.org.