Former NASA engineer turned YouTube celebrity and founder of CrunchLabs, Mark Rober, addresses the crowd at FIRST Championship.
HOUSTON, April 20, 2024 – This week, FIRST®, a robotics community that prepares young people for the future, brought together approximately 50,000 people from around the world as hundreds of student robotics teams put their innovation, teamwork, and robotics skills to the test at the 2024 FIRST Championship presented by BAE Systems, which took place at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
The not-for-profit organization’s annual four-day event concluded Saturday with middle and high school robotics teams competing in heart-pounding match finals for the FIRST® Robotics Competition and FIRST® Tech Challenge international championships, in front of thousands of cheering fans. Four teams from Binyamina, Israel; Sedalia, Missouri; Phoenix, Arizona; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were the FIRST Robotics Competition Winning Alliance for this year’s game, CRESCENDOSM presented by Haas. Teams from Focsani, Romania; San Diego, California; Cape Town, South Africa, were the FIRST Tech Challenge Winning Alliance for CENTERSTAGESM presented by RTX.
At FIRST Championship, 1,015 student robotics teams from 58 countries competed and exhibited across FIRST programs, and many FIRST® LEGO® League, FIRST Tech Challenge, and FIRST Robotics Competition teams earned honors for design excellence, competitive play, research, business plans, creativity, and teamwork. (See “2024 FIRST Championship Winners” section below.)
“Every year, FIRST Championship gets bigger and better, but one thing remains the same: it’s a remarkable and life-changing experience for students of all ages,” said Chris Moore, CEO of FIRST. “Not to mention, the competition is as fun, thrilling, and heart-pounding as any other sporting event – but our sport is the only one where every kid on every team can go pro.”
Special guests at the 2024 FIRST Championship included Dean Kamen, FIRST founder and prolific inventor, and other global leaders in business and innovation including former NASA engineer turned YouTube celebrity Mark Rober.
“Our longstanding partnership with FIRST reflects our commitment to fostering the next generation of our industry’s dreamers, planners, and doers,” said Tom Arseneault, president and CEO of BAE Systems, Inc. “Through FIRST, these students are gaining the essential experiences and skills to solve our world’s biggest challenges and create a better tomorrow.”
FIRST Championship also honored significant supporters of the FIRST mission:
FIRST Championship, the world’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for students, commemorated the conclusion of the 2023-2024 robotics season, FIRST® IN SHOWSM presented by Qualcomm, which challenged FIRST teams to discover the roles STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills play in the arts and bring their ideas to life.
On Saturday, FIRST previewed its ocean-themed 2024-2025 season, FIRST DIVESM presented by Qualcomm, with an inspiring video highlighting the role technology plays in helping us explore beneath the surface and learn from our planet’s most complex ecosystems.
“Qualcomm has supported FIRST for the last two decades because we know passion for invention starts at a young age, and today we have many FIRST alumni driving innovation at our company,” said Angela Baker, vice president and chief sustainability officer of Qualcomm Incorporated. “As a company of inventors, Qualcomm is committed to nurturing the next generation of diverse innovators and technologists. Here at FIRST Championship, we have been excited to see the creative ways students designed and built robots to solve this season’s challenges, and we are proud to support them.”
2024 FIRST Championship Winners
Select 2024 winners of the competitions and awards announced in Houston are listed below. Visit the award links provided for additional recipients:
Dean’s List Award – This award celebrates outstanding student leaders whose passion for and effectiveness at attaining FIRST ideals is exemplary.
From FIRST Robotics Competition:
From FIRST Tech Challenge:
1. FIRST® Robotics Competition - FIRST Robotics Competition (~ages 14-18) combines sports excitement with the rigors of science and technology. Working with adult mentors, students have limited time to design, build, program, and test their robots to meet the season’s challenge. In the 2024 game, CRESCENDO, teams used their STEM skills and creative power to turn up the volume in action-packed game play that included autonomous and driver-operated periods. The presenting sponsor for the FIRST Robotics Competition season is the Gene Haas Foundation.
More than 3,500 FIRST Robotics Competition teams competed during the 2024 season in regional and district events, with 600 teams advancing to Championship, where they competed in rotating alliances in one of eight divisions for several matches to earn ranking points and advance to playoffs.
Within their divisions, FIRST Robotics Competition teams earned additional match-based and judged awards, including Championship Division Winner, Engineering Inspiration Award, Rookie All Star Award, and Gracious Professionalism® Award.
View a list of winning teams by division: Archimedes Division | Curie Division sponsored by Rockwell Automation | Daly Division sponsored by Qualcomm | Galileo Division sponsored by BAE Systems | Hopper Division sponsored by Molex | Johnson Division sponsored by Gene Haas Foundation | Milstein Division sponsored by PwC | Newton Division sponsored by Medtronic.
FIRST Tech Challenge Team 7120 “Bionica” from Hewlett, N.Y. prep their robot for gameplay at FIRST Championship.
2. FIRST® Tech Challenge – FIRST Tech Challenge (~ages 12-18) students learn to think as engineers. Teams design, build, and program sophisticated robots, then pair up with alliance partners to compete in themed, 12-foot by 12-foot floor game. In the 2023-2024 game, CENTERSTAGE, teams used the power of design, creativity, and precision to operate robots a thrilling head-to-head challenge that included autonomous and driver-controlled periods. The presenting sponsor for the FIRST Tech Challenge season is RTX.
Approximately 7,900 FIRST Tech Challenge teams competed during the 2023-2024 season, with 224 teams advancing to this week’s FIRST Championship, where they competed in rotating alliances in one of four divisions across multiple days of game play to earn ranking points and advance to playoffs.
Within their divisions, FIRST Tech Challenge teams earned additional match-based and judged awards, including Division Winning Alliance, Design Award, and Connect Award.
View a list of winning teams by division: Franklin Division sponsored by RTX | Jemison Division sponsored by Google.org | Edison Division | Ochoa Division sponsored by Qualcomm
3. FIRST® LEGO® League – FIRST LEGO League (ages 4-16, varies by country) introduces younger students to real-world engineering challenges by inviting them to conduct research projects and build LEGO®-based autonomous robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. FIRST LEGO League teams, guided by their imaginations, discover exciting career possibilities and learn to make positive contributions to society.
This year, MASTERPIECESM challenged more than 58,000 student teams from around the world to explore what it takes to communicate, engage, and entertain an audience of any size. FIRST LEGO League Global Program Sponsors are LEGO® Education and The LEGO® Foundation. The FIRST LEGO League Challenge Division Sponsor is Rockwell Automation.
152 FIRST LEGO League Challenge division teams (ages 9-16) competed at this week’s event through robot matches, Innovation Project presentations, and FIRST Core Values activities.
39 FIRST LEGO League Explore division teams (ages 6-10) presented exhibits of their MASTERPIECE models and research to showcase their critical thinking and imagination skills during the event.
The Core Values Award, Team Poster Award, Team Model Award, Coding Award, and Challenge Solution Award were presented during a ceremony honoring all exhibiting FIRST LEGO League Explore teams.
For more from FIRST Championship, watch highlights and follow FIRST on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
2024 FIRST Championship Sponsors: The 2024 FIRST Championship is presented by BAE Systems. The Lead Sponsor is Mouser Electronics. Co-Sponsors include Bechtel Group Foundation, Central Intelligence Agency, Coca-Cola Company, Crunch Labs, DoD STEM, The Gene Haas Foundation, Molex, the United States Air Force, United Therapeutics Corporation, and Walt Disney Imagineering. Friends of FIRST Sponsors include Aramco, ARMI | BioFabUSA, Ball Corporation, Houston First, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, PwC, TE Connectivity, and United Airlines.
2023-2024 FIRST Strategic Partners: The 3M Company, Apple, The Argosy Foundation, BAE Systems, Bechtel Group Foundation, The Boeing Company, Bosch, Caterpillar, Inc., DEKA Research & Development Corporation, DoD STEM, Dow, FedEx Corporation, Ford Motor Company, The Gene Haas Foundation, General Motors Company, Google.org, John Deere, LEGO® Education, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NI, Novelis Inc., Qualcomm Incorporated, RTX, Rockwell Automation, Inc., TE Connectivity, and The Walt Disney Company
Save the Dates for the 2025 FIRST Championship events: April 16-19, 2025, Houston.
About FIRST®
FIRST® is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18 (PreK-12) that can be facilitated in school or in structured after-school programs. Boosted by a global support system of volunteers, educators, and sponsors that include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, teams operate under a signature set of FIRST Core Values to conduct research, fundraise, design, build, and showcase their achievements during annual challenges. An international not-for-profit organization founded by accomplished inventor Dean Kamen in 1989, FIRST has a proven impact on STEM learning, interest, and skill-building well beyond high school. Participants and alumni of FIRST programs gain access to education and career discovery opportunities, connections to exclusive scholarships and employers, and a place in the FIRST community for life. Learn more at firstinspires.org.