News & Stories 

We were excited to see teams from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire at one of our longest-running events in the same venue! The Waterbury District Event wowed visitors while kicking off two weekends in a row of CT events.

Our third year at the University of Rhode Island was a memorable one, with teams from all six New England states competing! This won't happen again until the District Championship next month! Thank you to university President Mark Parlange and College of Engineering Dean Anthony Marchese for welcoming our teams to the campus. Electrical engineering graduate student Anna Cetera gave a wonderful opening presentation encouraging students to consider URI for undergrad.

The Western NE District Event returned to Western New England University for the 6th time, welcoming teams from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire. Special thanks to our event chair Dr. Christian Salmon for introducing incoming University president Dr. Joseph Hartman and to both for welcoming our teams on Saturday morning! Local media had great coverage of the entire weekend. See our Press Room for the articles!

Returning this year after a brief hiatus, the North Shore District Event welcomed teams from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania to Reading Memorial High School! The added FIRST LEGO League Explore Festival was a special afternoon for everyone who participated and cheered them on.

The 12th annual Granite State District Event brought its name to Bedford High School, where the Southern NH District Event was held in 2017 and 2019! Hosting 34 teams from New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, we saw tons of excitement in this great venue.

The 9th annual Pine Tree District looked familiar, yet distinct from Pine Trees of the past! We returned to last year's new venue, Falmouth High School, to host the only FRC qualifier in Maine, where tradition holds that the event will be called Pine Tree. Featuring almost all of the Maine teams, as well as some visitors from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, this event was fortunate to be locally sponsored by the Maine Army National Guard and the Maine Space Cons

The 2026 FIRST Robotics Competition game, REBUILT, is no longer a thing of the past! New England kicked off the competition season with qualifiers in Massachusetts and Maine, hosting 50 teams during Week 1. The inaugural Minuteman District Event was so much fun, it never wanted to end!

We are grateful for the leadership and careful response of Rhode Island FIRST Tech Challenge, The Wheeler School and FIRST as all strive to support our community through the events of December 13, 2025, in Providence, Rhode Island

From classroom to career, Connecticut’s future innovators (and FIRST programs!) were on full display at the 2nd Annual Connecticut Manufacturing Innovation Forum!