FIRST Robotics Competition continues at SUNY Poly

Roughly 3,000 people -- many of them science-minded high school students -- gathered at SUNY Polytechnic Institute this week for the 2019 FIRST Robotics Competition. Steve Ference, the director of university communications at the college, said the event was incredibly exciting for a number of reasons. "This is a great opportunity for engineering students to show off all of their knowledge, but it's also a great opportunity for SUNY Polytechnic Institute to showcase all that we offer," he said. "This is a great pipeline for students who are interested in STEM to look at SUNY Poly as a place of opportunity where they can learn the skills -- like these skills so they can thrive," he added. The three-day event began Thursday and continues through Saturday in the college's Wildcat Field House, with teams of ninth- through 12th-graders from around the world competing for a chance to move on to the FIRST Championships in April.