Greenville is excited to welcome back FIRST North Carolina Robotics for their ECU Regional Robotics Championship for the first time since 2019. The 2022 competition will be held March 11 – 13 at East Carolina University’s Minges Coliseum. This tournament is expected to generate over $1 million in estimated economic impact to our Greenville-Pitt County economy. The combined estimated economic impact from hosting this event in 2018, 2019, and again in 2022 is over $3 million.
This year 34 high school teams from across the state are competing in Rapid React, using innovative engineering, creative thinking, and teamwork to create highly sophisticated robots capable of achieving the game objectives.
Winners of this competition will then advance to the North Carolina State Championship at Campbell University in April, and eventually on to the FIRST Robotics Championship in Houston, Texas later in April. Teams will be coming across the state to compete, and Pitt County will be represented in the competition, the FRC 2642 Pitt Pirates! Admission to this event is free and the public is encouraged to attend! Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/first-robotics-competition-ecu-district-event-tickets-276172157357
Friday, 3/11/22
4pm – Educator’s Introduction to FIRST Sessions for FLL Divisions
5pm – 10pm – Robot testing and inspection
6pm – Educator’s Introduction to FIRST Sessions for FTC & FRC Divisions
Saturday, 3/12/22
8:30am - 10:3 am - Educator’s Breakfast & Info Session
9am – Educator’s Introduction to FIRST Sessions for FTC & FRC Divisions
10:30am – 11am – Opening ceremonies
11am – 7pm – Qualifying matches
11am – Educator’s Introduction to FIRST Sessions for FLL Divisions
Sunday, 3/13/22
9:30am – 10am – Opening ceremonies and keynotes
10am - 12pm – Qualifying matches
1pm - 4:30pm – Final rounds matches
4:30pm - 5:30pm – Awards & closing ceremonies
“It is such an honor to work with amazing people across the state to inspire the next generation of innovators and challenge-solvers. FIRST is an amazing program that changes lives in profound ways,” stated Marie Hopper, President of FIRST North Carolina. “These events are the culmination of weeks of hard work and dedication by our students and their adult mentors. Come see for yourself the power of hands-on learning!”
Greenville, Pitt County, and East Carolina University Athletics have been the host of this event for many years. This year, the partnership was made even stronger with the support of the ECU College of Engineering & Technology, who have been an integral part of hosting this event, along with the entire University administration.
“FIRST NC Robotics is a wonderful partner, and we are grateful for this opportunity to host FIRST NC Robotics Tournament on ECU’s campus, which will create amazing exposure for our university and city to future potential students and families,” stated Gray Workman, Executive Director of Play Greenville, NC Sports. “Our partners at Hyster-Yale and Grover Gaming have also used this opportunity is to expose these innovative students to their companies to show them what kind of STEM jobs are open to them in the future.”
