Needs From: Volunteer Center of Lubbock

Need Summary:

The Whitacre College of Engineering Outreach & Engagement Program will be hosting its yearly West Texas FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Regional Championship Event and is in need of judges to help support the competition.

FIRST Tech Challenge is a robotics program for middle school and high school students where they must design, build, program, and present a robot that competes in a robot game that changes every year. Each season, a new theme is introduced to give students new challenges to solve! 

The TTU - College of Engineering Outreach Program is responsible for running and managing FIRST Tech Challenge for the West and Panhandle Texas area, which includes Lubbock, Amarillo, El Paso, Midland, and more! Each season ends with our local regional championship, where teams from all over West Texas will come to compete for a spot at the UIL, State, and World Championship. 

Judges are needed to help evaluate a team's robot and presentation that will occur at the competition, and help decide what judged awards a team will earn. 

Background Information:About FIRST:

FIRST is an international non-profit organization that provides robotics and STEM-based programs and activities for K-12 students. At TTU WCOE - Outreach & Engagement, we work to help support FIRST programs locally for the West & Panhandle Texas area! 

If you have not heard of FIRST before, watch this video below to learn more:

About FIRST Tech Challenge:

FIRST Tech Challenge is one of three robotics porgrams provided by FIRST and is one of the biggest robotics programs we support at the TTU WCOE - Outreach & Engagement program. The season kicks off in September, when the game is revealed, and then the robotics teams must design, build, and program a robot that can complete the tasks that the current season's game provides.  In West Texas, teams are grouped into leagues, and each league competes in a series of competitions that lead to the regional championship. Judging, awards, marketing, outreach, and fundraising are also part of this competition, and teams must excel in all aspects of FIRST Tech Challenge in order to succeed. 

You can learn more about FIRST Tech Challenge with the following video: