Thirty-one Georgia high schools, including 10 local Albany teams, will bring students, teachers, mentors, sponsors and family members totaling more than 2,000 attendants to participate in the P&G FIRST Robotics Competition to be held in Albany on Friday March 15 – Saturday March 16 at the Albany Civic Center.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international program that pairs high school students with professional mentors to design and build robots to contend in competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration and the determination of students.

The district qualifier, sponsored by P&G and the City of Albany, will send a minimum of three teams to the state level competition in April in Cartersville, Georgia.

“P&G is a strong supporter of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and recognizes the FIRST Robotics program as a fantastic tool to get students interested in these fields at a young age, giving them the opportunity to exercise their skills through the robotics competitions,” said Werhner Washington, plant manager at P&G Albany. “We want to take every opportunity to encourage these kids in their pursuit of STEM related careers and hope that one day, they’ll come back to utilize their skills by making Bounty and Charmin here at the P&G Albany plant.”

In "Destination: Deep Space," the 2019 competition game theme, we find our two competing alliances collecting and depositing samples into cargo ships and rocket ships on Planet Primus. With only minutes to spare, each alliance must work towards a common goal before the next sandstorm arrives.

FIRST – standing for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” -– is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to inspiring an appreciation of science and technology in young people, and organizes the robotics competitions as part of their mission.

The Albany district-qualifying event is free to the public and begins with opening ceremonies at 10:30 a.m. on Friday March 15 and concludes at 5:30 p.m. on March 16.