Sixteen teams from across Northwest Florida, including four representing Bay County, will compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge season opener at Rutherford High School on Saturday, Oct. 19. This is the first time an event like this will be held in Bay County, according to organizers.

In the past seasons, local teams have traveled to Crestview, Tallahassee and Niceville to compete.

The event is open to the public. Matches are from noon to 4 p.m. in the Rutherford High School gymnasium, 1000 School Ave., Panama City.

FSU Panama City’s ASCENT program (Advancing Science and Career Education in New Technologies) supports Rutherford’s robotics team, “Catastrophic RAMifications,” named for the school’s mascot. For more on ASCENT, visit PC.FSU.edu/Ascent.

“Through a grant from Florida Power & Light last year, we purchased about $3,000 in hardware, including the robot base for this new team at Rutherford,” said Brianne Biddle, K-12 Liaison. “They are one of ASCENT's Integrated Technology Clubs (ITCs).”

Several of the students participating are members of ITCs, and a total of five students competing attended the ASCENT iCamp last summer at FSU PC. One of the coaches attended ASCENT’s Python coding training and obtained a Python Coding certification last summer, and another coach works with ASCENT to help spread the word on FIRST Inspires. 

FIRST is a global robotics community preparing young people for the future and the world's leading youth-serving nonprofit advancing STEM education. FIRST offers five levels of programs from early education to high school. See FirstInspires.org for more information. 

This event was made possible through the support and efforts of Jonathon Edwards from the Doolittle Institute in Niceville, who is the program delivery partner in this region, and  Damion Dunlap, STEM Outreach manager with Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City.

The growth of robotics and STEM in Bay County is on the rise with multiple opportunities for students and educators to access events, funding and training. These opportunities have been offered through programs from ASCENT at FSU PC as well as partnerships with Gulf Coast State College and Department of Defense grants.

In the competition, students must display an advanced knowledge of the engineering process as the team designs, builds and programs an autonomous robot. The machine must be small enough to fit into an 18-inch cube while still being capable of completing multiple tasks. 

During each of the 2½-minute matches, the team’s robot scores points by moving small brick-like objects called “samples” and placing them into specific areas. There’s a fierce rivalry, as the teams form alliances and face off against each other in a 12-foot-square arena.