It's that time of year, when amazing things come out to play. Yes, it's the 11th annual Granite State Regional FIRST competition, happening Feb. 28-March 2 at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, and you are invited.

Worldwide, close to 60,000 high school students from more than 10 countries are participating in this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition, including a team from Londonderry High School. Historically, there's a lot of pride here – New Hampshire is where FIRST originated, under the inventive and watchful eye of DEKA CEO Dean Kamen.

How it works

Teams form and work together to create a robot that can compete, tournament style, performing specific tasks at regional events, based on that year's assignment, culminating in the finals. FIRST Robotics competitions combine the excitement of a sporting event with a boost from science and technology resulting in a rewarding exercise in problem solving, engineering, team work and success.

This Year's Game

The 2013 game, ULTIMATE ASCENT, is played between two Alliances of three teams each. Each Alliance competes by trying to score as many flying discs into their goals as possible during the two-minute and 15-second match. Discs scored in higher goals score Alliances more points. Matches end with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field.

Winning teams will compete at the National FIRST Championship, April 24-27 in St. Louis, Mo.

You can view a YouTube video of this year's kick-off broadcast, uploaded here, and view a second video tour of the playing field.

Schedule

(A printable pdf is available with this story.)

2013 REGIONAL SCHEDULE BAE SYSTEMS/GRANITE STATE REGIONAL

Wednesday, February 27, 2013
6 - 8 p.m. ...........................5 Team Reps to Load In

Thursday, February 28, 2013
7:45 am ...............................................5 Team Reps to Load In
8:30 am ...............................................Pits and Machine Shop OPEN
8:30 am ...............................................Registration and Robot Inspection Start
10 a.m. - Noon .......................Practice Rounds
12 p.m. - 1 p.m. ............................LUNCH
1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. .............................Practice Rounds
8:00 pm ............................................Pits and Machine Shop CLOSE

Friday, March 1, 2013
8:00 am ............................................Pits and Machine Shop OPEN
8:30 am - 9:00 am ...............................Opening Ceremonies
9:00 am - 12:00 Noon ........................Qualification Matches
12:00 Noon - 1:00 pm ........................LUNCH
1:00 pm - 5:45 pm ..............................Qualification Matches
5:45 pm - 6:30 pm ...............................Awards Ceremony
7:00 pm ............................................Pits and Machine Shop CLOSE

Saturday, March 2, 2013
8:00 am ............................................Pits and Machine shop OPEN
8:30 am - 9:00 am ...............................Opening Ceremonies
9:00 am - 12:15 pm ...........................Qualification Matches
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm ..........................Alliance Selections
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm ............................LUNCH
1:30 pm - 4:30 pm .............................Final Rounds
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm ...............................Awards Ceremony
6:30 pm ............................................Pits close; crates packed

LONDONDERRY PATCH: Facebook | Twitter | E-mail Updates |