The first weekend of ROBOTICON 2022 youth STEM competitions is in the bag, having kicked off with the FIRST Robotics Competition Rapid React Off-Season! Nearly 20 teams with 23 robots – over 400 youth plus mentors, coaches, and families and more than 30 volunteers – filled University Mall on October 7 & 8, introducing hundreds of visitors to the high-energy fun and skill and career-building opportunities that FIRST Robotics Competition offers.
FIRST founder, and 2021 Florida Inventors Hall of Fame inductee, Dean Kamen, helped us open the event with a greeting he recorded for us, welcoming everyone to our public-facing showcase event.
And then the balls went flying!
You can see more videos from the event on our ROBOTICON 2022 playlist, and check out our award winners below, who received laser-etched awards custom-made for the event at AMRoC Fab Lab, which also functioned as ROBOTICON HQ and Volunteer Central throughout the weekend.
Rapid React Off-Season Awards
Event Awards
- Gracious Professionalism: Team 4118 Roaring Riptide
- Team Spirit: Team 5842 Royal Robotics
- Team Showcase Award: Team 233 Pink
- Judges Award for general all-around awesomeness: Team 5557 BB-R8ERS
Rockstar Volunteers:
- Karen Stolley
- Bryan Bautista
- Chase MacDonnell
- Nathan Kutzan
Field Awards
- Finalist Alliance: Team 5557 BB-R8ERS, Team 9971 Swamp (2nd robot), Team 8324 MECO
- Winning Alliance: Team 5842 Royal Robotics, Team 59 RamTech, Team 179 Swamp
Rapid React Off-Season Media
Teams can find competition videos on our ROBOTICON 2022 playlist
And photos in our Flickr album
Thank You!
Thank you to all our volunteers – many of whom were FIRST alumni – and to our great sponsors: Florida High Tech Corridor, SOFWERX, Bay Area Manufacturers Association (BAMA), Women in Defense, RD Management, Frontier Communications, and Soaring
City Innovation Partnership, as well as to our program partners Scoutlier, PLUGHITZ, Tampa Bay Community Network, Stryke Esports and eSmart Recycling.
More ROBOTICON Fun all Month Long!
There’s plenty more Competitive STEM fun to enjoy throughout the rest of the month! Coming up the weekend of October 15 & !6, our VEX IQ and VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) qualifying events for elementary, middle, and high school students.
Visit our Event Agenda page to see our full Manufacturing Month schedule.