It’s FIRST Kickoff 2012! All the teams in attendance at CMU were super excited to find out what the game for this year was. Before the game was announced, there were a lot of different speakers who told all of us about their occupations, how FIRST effected their lives, what they have accomplished in school, and lots of other really interesting facts about engineering.

This year Pittsburgh had the most students, mentors, and teams that they have ever had signed up for the Pittsburgh regional and in attendance for the kickoff event. There are a lot of new rookie teams this year, a total of 9, as well as some second-year teams like our own team, Girls of Steel. New rookie teams: check out this rookie resource website here, created by the Girls of Steel.

Dean Kamen, Bill Clinton, Steven Colbert, Woodie Flowers, will.i.am, and Muhtar Kent, as well as other speakers, talked about FIRST and the educational benefits that come with it. We were all on the edge of our seats as we waited for the announcement of the game for 2012.

Finally, we saw a diagram of the game field. It was set up like a basketball court. As the game was explained, there were a mixture of reactions expressed by the crowd; there were some groans as well as some whoops.

Overall, our team is very excited to plan out the design of our robot and begin the build season with a good start. We wish good luck for the next six weeks to all the other FRC Teams! And get ready for Rebound Rumble!