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Global contest for students to show talent kicks off in St. Louis

Xinhua, April 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

The 2015 FIRST Championship, a global event for young people to display their talent in science, technology and engineering kicked off the contest in St. Louis, Missouri, on Thursday.

Of the three simultaneous competitions under the 2015 FIRST ( For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), FIRST Robotics Competition for high-school students is undoubtedly the biggest one. Fifteen thousand high-school students in 608 teams from 10 countries, namely the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom participated in the event and competed this year.

Three teams from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in the Chinese mainland have fought all the way into the final contest.

"I'm pretty excited, it's my first time, actually the first time for our school to come here and it's our pleasure to be here, " said Tao Chaoqun, a student in charge of robot programming of the High School affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

At the 26-year-old FIRST Championship venue, China is a new comer. A Chinese team attended the competition in the U.S. for the first time in 2013. In 2014, the number of participating teams from China increased to 8, and then further to 15 in 2015. Yue Yaming, chairman of China Urban Youth Robotic Alliance, is expecting more Chinese teams to participate in the event in the coming years.

Founded in 1989, FIRST aims to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. It focuses on robotics things but is not limited to it. As FIRST founder Dean Kamen said, FIRST is more than robot, it is about developing future generations of innovators, tinkerers, doers, and thinkers.

Notably, many world famous companies including more than 200 of the Fortune 500 companies have provided funding, mentorship time and talent, volunteerism, and equipment to FIRST and the participating teams all the way along.

Besides FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge for students of 7-12 grades and FIRST LEGO League for students of 4-8 grades have been held simultaneously.

The competition will go on until Saturday, when winners will come out. Endite