Student teams and sponsors fill the Center for Space Education at KSC as they look over the competition.

Student teams and sponsors, with their robots, fill the Center for Space Education at KSC as they look over the competition. Thirty schools from around the country have converged at KSC for the 1999 Southeastern Regional robotic competition March 4-6. The event pits the team-built gladiator robots against each other in an athletic-style competition. KSC is hosting the event being sponsored by the nonprofit organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, known as FIRST. The FIRST robotics competition is designed to provide students with a hands-on, inside look at engineering and other professional careers