I love seeing the details of this competition each year! It’s a brand new season for FIRST Robotics, an international, project-based robotics competition for students. Kids from Kindergarten to 12th grade can participate in the varsity program, known as FIRST Robotics Competition, which challenges teams of students to create large-scale robots. Taking part in regional competitions, the inventions must be capable of playing a special game, and teams are judged on their creativity, engineering skills, and teamwork. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it? There are prizes involved as well, though the real reward is the experience of being a part of the program and working with some Disney Imagineers along the way! Let’s hear more about the pre-season details from Andy Milluzzi from the Ride Control Engineering team at Walt Disney Imagineering:
The preseason is an exciting time – welcoming new students, preparing the shop, experimenting with new ideas, raising funds, and exploring the theme for the season. This year the theme is “FIRST in Show,” focusing on the impact of the arts and creativity. Creativity is at the core of what we do at Walt Disney Imagineering, which is why so many of us love serving as mentors for FIRST teams! Here’s a video with two of my fellow Imagineers – Senior Show Technical Production Manager Greg Johnson and Ride Engineering Studio Executive Mark Mesko – that helps explain why.
Dozens of Imagineers around the world mentor FIRST teams or are FIRST alumni. As a Disney VoluntEAR and mentor of 5816 Gra-V Robotics here in Central Florida, I cannot wait to see what they develop. Last year, the team had an outstanding season, trying new ideas with the robot and earning a spot at FIRST Championship with the FIRST Impact Award. Imagineers are incredibly proud of all the teams we work with, as you can probably tell from this new video with highlights from this past year:
Take a look back at the past year’s event.
Here are some more details about the 2023 event that we shared earlier in the year.
Zoë Wood is a travel writer from Sydney, Australia. Since her first visit to Disneyland at the age of 6, she has spent her years frequently visiting Disney Parks and traveling around the world.
Join Zoë as she lets you in on all the tips, tricks, anecdotes, and embarrassments that arise from her family adventures.
