418FIRST Robotics Competition Logo
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Our Competitions

The LASA Robotics Team engages in two major competitions each year:

BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) in the fall -- specifically Capitol BEST and Texas BEST.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in the spring -- specifically, the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)

These are multi-faceted competitions, involving much more than building robots.

The Team also sometimes participates in other competitions, such as with LEGO or VEX robotics.



What is BEST?

BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) is a robotics competition each fall for middle and high school students.

Teams must work quickly—in six weeks from September to October—to build a unique robot for a specified task, usually involving teamwork and multiple human operators.

There are twenty-eight hub competitions, primarily in the South- Eastern United States, though BEST is spreading nationwide. The competition culminates in five large regional events. Team Purple Haze participates in Capitol BEST and frequently goes on to Texas BEST.

BEST strives to get young people involved not only in the design and manufacture of machines, but also in the technical writing, documentation, and promotion behind the machine, through special awards for such things as notebooks and oral presentations. Essentially, BEST helps to train the next generation of engineering teams.

 
What is FIRST?

FIRST Robotics LogoFIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology), is a fast paced, multinational robotics competition and one of the main annual competitions in which our Team engages. Specifically, LASA Robotics participates in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) as Team 418, LASA Robotics - AKA The Purple Haze.


For FRC, students team up with engineers to come up with creative and unique solutions to challenging engineering design problems. Time is short—there are only six weeks from kickoff in January to ship day—so students must turn two crates full of electronics into a sleek and sophisticated robot that will accomplish one or more specific tasks and negotiate a course.

There are amny additional aspects and awards in this competition. For example, teams may create an original 30-second animation, or 3-D CAD models of their robot. FIRST also offers awards for innovation, community service, and more.

More than 20,000 students from over 900 teams compete world-wide in 27 regional competitions, culminating in the national event in Atlanta in the spring. 

Along with the thrill of creating a competitive robot, students in FIRST are eligible to receive scholarships donated by individuals, schools and businesses to secure the future in engineering.