Our Region

Philadelphia is part of the Mid-Atlantic Region of FIRST, which encompasses Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Our Regional Director Donald Bowers oversees the entire region, with the assistance of our Senior Mentor Nate Knauss. Program Affiliates work to administer the specific FRC, FTC, and FLL programs.

Philadelphia is the nation's sixth-largest city, and has many resources available for our teams, and is the seat of our annual FRC Regional Tournament. But FIRST is not only an urban program, and our staff are hard at work to bring FIRST programs to students across the state. Our FRC program has over 30 teams in Eastern PA, from the Center City Philadelphia to suburban Downingtown to rural Kintnersville.

Our FLL program has grown even more rapidly, with over 140 teams in Pennsylvania alone. To accomodate this growth, 2011 saw the inaugural Philadelphia FLL Championship tournament, hosted by University of Pennsylvania. As the FLL program grows, more qualifying tournaments are being built across Pennsylvania and New Jersey to provide the opportunities for our hard-working and motivated students to put their robots to the test.

Despite being our youngest program, FTC as already been well-received across the state, and already we have almost as many FTC teams as FRC in Pennsylvania alone.