More than 1,400 high school students from Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Jersey, Iowa, Tennessee and South Carolina, will compete in the Buckeye Regional FIRST Robotics Competition.

The tournament will be held at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, 2000 Prospect Ave. Friday, March 30 and Saturday March 31, 2018.

Cleveland’s Youth Robotics Team 120 at the Buckeye Regional FIRST Robotics Competition 2017.

Credits: NASA

Practice games are Thursday, March 29, from noon to 6:30 p.m. The tournament and practice games are free and open to the public.

Media attending the competition should stop by the media table located on the first floor to pick up a badge for access to the playing field.

This year’s theme is FIRST POWER UP. Two alliances (red and blue teams) are trapped in an arcade game and must use robots to escape.

To watch the competition, live online, go to:

https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires1

or

https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires2

The players compete for awards and a spot at the FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas, Wednesday through Saturday, April 18-21, or April 25-28, in Detroit, Michigan. In addition, all FIRST contestants are eligible to apply for a share of nearly $50 million in scholarships.

NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Office of Education, the largest sponsor of the Buckeye Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, recently awarded grants totaling $23,000 to 11 Ohio teams:

Team 1248 TITANium Allies, Berea Midpark High School, Berea
Team 1590 Titanium’s, Lorain High School, Lorain
Team 3193 Falco Tech, Austintown Fitch High School, Austintown
Team 4085 Technical Difficulties, Reynoldsburg High School, eSTEM Academy, Reynoldsburg
Team 4121 Viking Robotics, North Canton
Team 4145 FRC Worbots, Worthington Kilbourne High School, Columbus
Team 4780 Tenacious Drones, Constellation Schools Parma Community, Parma
Team 6027 The Brain Waves, Newark Catholic High School, Newark
Team 6355 Robots Over Parma, Valley Forge High School, Parma Heights
Team 6916 Iron Thunder, Life Skills High School of Columbus North, Columbus
Team 7055 Quantum Steam, Bay High School, Bay Village
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an international organization that inspires students to study science, technology, engineering and math by engaging them in robotics.