What is FIRST? It is the Superbowl. The “Superbowl of Smarts” that is. It’s kids working together to dream up, design and build robots. They’re having the hardest fun they’ll ever have, and they are becoming the next generation of innovators and engineers. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a program founded by inventor Dean Kamen to get more young people involved in and excited about science and engineering. Under strict rules, limited resources and tight deadlines, high school teams of approximately 25 students or more design, build and program robots to compete in sports-inspired games against a field of competitors. This year’s game, “Rebound Rumble,” challenges teams to play the game of basketball while transversing a field of obstacles. Through the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), more than 60,000 high school students from more than nine countries are engaged in this rigorous competition. On March 3-4, nearly 60 FRC teams will be competing at the San Diego regional competition in the Valley View Casino Center. Team 2984 — the Vikings of La Jolla High School is entering its fourth season with FIRST. Founded originally as an after-school club at Muirlands Middle School, the Vikings have become one of the most competitive teams in San Diego. From January until April, the robotics students at LJHS will be working every weekend and almost every night in the robotics room. During the 2010-11 season, the eight students — ranging from freshmen to seniors — put in more than 500 hours each toward the construction of their award-winning robot. The lessons these students learned weren’t limited to just engineering skills; among other things, the students learned about quantifying the value of their efforts, managing the risks of competing designs, and the importance of perseverance, focus and self reliance. Many of these skills can’t be learned in a classroom — they require a complex, seemingly impossible task that involves months of focused work. Without the help of the La Jolla community, the robotics program at LJHS wouldn’t exist. One sponsor in particular has enabled our program to be successful in both the inspirational and competitive modes of FIRST. This sponsor — The Dini Group located at the corner of Draper and Pearl streets — has been by far our greatest supporter and has made the difference between success and failure for our program. Other sponsors including Qualcomm, SAIC, ViaSat and The Neurosciences Institute. They have provided immensely valuable support over our four seasons. During these four seasons, as the team mentor I have tried to inspire the robotics students into achieving the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the year. In each successive season, the team has been able to improve its performance. In the latest season, all of the students’ hard work came to fruition — the Vikings won first place and were awarded a trophy for best-engineered robot at the Las Vegas regional competition.