The final day of the 2008 FIRST Robotics Competition (FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome featured last-minute adjusting, expert coaching, teams celebrating and lamenting, and crowds roaring. Mental agility was on display, as future scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and software programmers competed for honors at a world series of intellect. Nearly 38,000 thousand high school students from around the world participated.

Such competitions help create interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and may decrease the anticipated skills gap between the number of engineers needed and the number expected to retire over the next few years.

The winners included Team 148 RoboWranglers of Greenville High School (Texas); Team 217 ThunderChickens of Utica Community Schools from Sterling Heights, MI; and Team 1114 Simbotics of Governor Simcoe Secondary School from St. Catharine’s in Ontario, Canada.

Autodesk, a 17-year sponsor of the competition, has provided more than $100 million in professional 3D design software and mentoring resources to help thousands of students get involved in science, technology, engineering and math, in order to provide the next generation of scientists and engineers a head start on their professional careers.

Autodesk is not the only industry player involved. Over the next five years, National Instruments is granting a multimillion dollar in-kind donation to FIRST to provide the CompactRIO system to participating teams.