PRESS ROOM & NEWS

Students Worldwide to Make Waves as FIRST Announces 2024-2025 Youth Robotics Season, FIRST DIVE presented by Qualcomm Incorporated

Qualcomm Announced as Presenting Sponsor of Ocean-Themed Season, Inspiring Young People to Explore Undersea Life and Innovate for a Better World

 

MANCHESTER, NH, May 15, 2024 – FIRST®, a robotics community that prepares young people for the future, announced the upcoming youth robotics season: FIRST® DIVESM presented by Qualcomm. The 2024-2025 season’s ocean theme challenges FIRST teams to be curious and creative problem-solvers as they work together to develop bold technological innovations and powerful solutions to support aquatic life and further discovery under the sea.

Watch an exciting preview of what will soon wash ashore with FIRST DIVE.

The new season will kick off August 6 with the FIRST® LEGO® League challenge release, followed by FIRST® Tech Challenge in September and FIRST® Robotics Competition in January, and conclude in April with the 2025 FIRST Championship.

Season team registration through the FIRST Dashboard is now open.

“We are thrilled to roll out a new, engaging season of FIRST that will empower hundreds of thousands of students to use their technical and 21st century holistic skills to explore life beneath the ocean’s surface,” said Chris Moore, CEO, FIRST. “Much like every other FIRST season, FIRST DIVE will make a splash thanks to our generous and passionate community of mentors, coaches, educators, volunteers, sponsors, donors, families, and other supporters. I am so excited to watch our students dive into this season’s challenge.”

Qualcomm Incorporated, a FIRST Strategic Partner and longtime supporter of FIRST, returns as Season Presenting Sponsor of the FIRST DIVE season to inspire the FIRST community to uncover the potential in each of us to strengthen our community and innovate for a better world.

“We’re proud to partner with FIRST to inspire students to make waves this season as part of our commitment to nurturing the next generation of diverse innovators and technologists,” said Angela Baker, vice president and chief sustainability officer of Qualcomm Incorporated. “At Qualcomm, beneath the surface of our own bold innovations and powerful solutions are passionate, curious, creative problem-solvers just like FIRST participants, who use their STEM skills to explore the possibilities for a better future.”

The FIRST DIVE presented by Qualcomm season theme will be pulled through the FIRST program games and challenges, in which students build robots to complete tasks and create innovative, real-world solutions and then celebrate what they learned and built at local and regional events:

  • FIRST LEGO League students will use creative thinking and LEGO® technology to explore the layers of the ocean and bring their learnings and ideas to the surface in SUBMERGEDSM, launching August 6.
  • FIRST Tech Challenge teams will dive their robots into the depths of the ocean to explore the unknown and reveal its wonders in INTO THE DEEPSM presented by RTX, launching September 7.
  • FIRST Robotics Competition teams will use their engineering skills to strengthen one of the ocean’s most diverse habitats in REEFSCAPESM presented by Haas, launching January 4, 2025.

The season-culminating 2025 FIRST Championship will be held April 16-19, 2025, in Houston.

Learn more about the 2024-2025 season at firstinspires.org/firstdive and receive regular updates and latest news by signing up for the FIRST Newsletter.  

 

About FIRST® 

FIRST® is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18 (PreK-12) that can be facilitated in school or in structured after-school programs. Boosted by a global support system of volunteers, educators, and sponsors that include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, teams operate under a signature set of FIRST Core Values to conduct research, fundraise, design, build, and showcase their achievements during annual challenges.

An international not-for-profit organization founded by accomplished inventor Dean Kamen in 1989, FIRST has a proven impact on STEM learning, interest, and skill-building well beyond high school. Participants and alumni of FIRST programs gain access to education and career discovery opportunities, connections to exclusive scholarships and employers, and a place in the FIRST community for life. Learn more at firstinspires.org.