FIRST is a non-profit organization with the goal of generating interest in science and engineering in young people. Not only does FIRST support science, it also hopes to create better people by teaching its creed of gracious professionalism. Although the FIRST Robotics Competition is about creating a more innovative robot than opposing teams, it also calls for helping each other as much as possible. All of the FIRST Robotics teams are there for each other, whether they're helping each other with parts and materials, creating custom machined parts for each other, or simply offering advice and suggestions.

FIRST is the brainchild of inventor Dean Kamen, who created, among other inventions, the portable dialysis machine and the Segway. With the help of many major corporations - such as BAE, GM, SMALL PARTS and AutoDesk - the FIRST Robotics Competition has flourished into an organization of over 1100 teams and 20,000 students from around the globe, including countries such as Canada, Mexico, England, Brazil, Israel and almost every state in the USA. With each recurring year, FIRST has expanded the number of competitions. For the 2006 season there were thirty-three regional events in addition to the Championship event hosted in Atlanta, Georgia, which nearly 350 teams will attend.

FIRST has several thrusts to achieve it's goals. Technology education programs are offered by FIRST Place and FIRST runs several robotics-based competitions. FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is the high school level robotics competition we participate in. FIRST also sponsors the FIRST Lego League (FLL) competition for middle school students and is experimenting with several large pilot programs - FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC) as a transistion from FLL to FRC and Junior FIRST LEGO League for ages 6-9.