Welcome
Clemson University welcomes the fifth annual FIRST Robotics Competition Palmetto Regional March 28-29 at Littlejohn Coliseum. One thousand local and regional high school students will vie for top honors in a highly competitive and action packed contest described as a rock concert and 
sporting event for the mind rolled into one. Thirty-six teams representing eight states (South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia) are slated to participate.
The games are free and open to the public from 9:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Streaming video of the competition can be viewed here.
Teams received their marching orders for the competition at a kickoff event held at Clemson's Madren Center in January. The teams had six weeks to assemble their robots for the regional competition.
In this year's game, student robots are designed to race around a track knocking down 40-inch inflated Trackballs and moving them around the track, passing them either over or under a 6'6" overpass. Each match will last 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Teams are judged not only on point accumulation, but also on design, team spirit, professionalism and perseverance.
The regional events will lead to an international championship competition April 17-19 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. More than 32,000 high school students participate on 1,500 teams in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands and England.
Clemson is a nationally recognized research university where approximately 5,500 students are enrolled in engineering and science undergraduate and graduate courses. There are 350 faculty in the College of Engineering and Science. For more information visit the College of Engineering and Science homepage.
