HUNTSVILLE – With an ear to the ground and an eye cast toward the future, the robotics community is partnering with Huntsville’s New Technology High School to stage a competition Saturday.

The FIRST Tech Challenge Alabama State Championship will be held at New Technology, which shares a building with Lee High School, with the opening ceremonies at 10:45 a.m.

Teams of students in grades 7-12 have designed, fabricated, built and programmed robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format. Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEAM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team.

STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. 

According to FIRST, “More Than Robots’ competitions are an exciting experience that is part basketball championship, part NASCAR, part Broadway, along with a slew of unique FIRST traditions. The Championship is a free event open to the public, and is a great opportunity to show youth Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) in action.”

Teams participating compete with alliance partners in an exciting head-to-head style of competition to determine the winning alliance. Judges’ interviews throughout the day determine the award winners for engineering design, outreach, innovation, use of sensors and software, and hardware industrial design.

To conclude, awards will accompany the closing ceremony to celebrate the teams and their accomplishments, as well as the volunteers. The finalists and winners of each award will be announced then, as well as the two teams that will advance to the FIRST Championship in April where the top teams from across the world will compete in one of the largest youth STEAM events in the world.