FIRST Chesapeake Championships Sponsored by Newport News Shipbuilding
From April 7th- 9th, FIRST Chesapeake offered double the excitement of a FIRST competition to our teams, volunteers, friends, and families by hosting both the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship and the FIRST Robotics Competition District Championship (both sponsored by our longtime partner, Newport News Shipbuilding) under one roof at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA.
During the three days, 140 FIRST Chesapeake teams gathered to compete for a chance to advance to the FIRST Championship in Houston. We were happy to once again invite the public to our event and we had almost 9,000 total attendees at the venue over 3 days!
Over 200 volunteers donated their time and expertise to make a difference in the lives of youth from DC, MD, and VA. FIRST Chesapeake appreciates your enthusiasm and willingness to help support us and inspire tomorrow's technology leaders.
We would like to thank our live feed broadcast sponsor, ProductiveAV, for bringing the competition to those who could not attend. We logged close to 11,000 unique live feed views from around the world between Friday and Saturday!
The Championship also saw the return of the practice field, in-person judging, the machine shop Sponsored by NASA, and Technology Row. Jon Sherman from Newport News Shipbuilding helped us start off our Friday with some inspirational words and a standing ovation for one of NASA's first human computers, Doris Blanchard. FIRST Chesapeake Board member and Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton, Cedric Sims, got the audience engaged and revved up during his opening remarks on Saturday.
We especially want to thank our title sponsor, Newport News Shipbuilding, without whom this event would not have been possible. We are grateful for your long-time partnership and support.