About Us
"FIRST is a team, not working against each other, but working together against the odds."
We are constantly amazed by the impact that individual FIRST teams have on their communities. We believe that if FIRST teams work together more closely, combining the impact of the 600,000+ students in FIRST, we can reach greater heights and inspire more people than ever before.
This is why we created FIRSTAlliances.
There's so much awesome stuff that FIRST teams accomplish, but when we searched, we found there was no easy way to find it all. On The Blue Alliance, team award and robot score history can be found easily. FIRSTAlliances aims to do something similar, by helping people find teams that run summer camps, have programs to support and inspire girls in STEM, or collaborate with international rookie teams (to name a few). Once someone has found these teams, they can then collaborate and/or learn from these teams in order to make an even bigger impact. Rookie teams can find mentors, veteran teams can find partners for new projects, teams looking to improve their outreach can read documentation from winning teams... the possibilities are endless! Our Event Help feature even helps teams find members of the Alliance at their events to get specific, on-site assistance. Our mission is to make finding and collaborating with FIRST teams easier than ever before. We exist to help unite FIRST teams so that they can achieve their goals and create new, amazing things and further the goals of FIRST.
FIRSTAlliances Spotlights
To further encourage collaboration and help teams #MakeItLoud, we also run our Spotlight program, which highlights a different team or program each week in order to boost awareness of what the FIRST community is doing and encourage other FIRST teams to participate and/or assist.
Numbers
We currently have 627 teams on the site: 425 FRC, 105 FTC, 92 FLL, 4 FLL Jr, and 1 FGC. Among them, they have uploaded 75 team programs and shared 66 resources with the community.
FAQs
Why?
FRC 1902, Exploding Bacon, has launched multiple outreach programs over the past couple years that have only seen success because many teams around the world have gotten involved. We love partnering with other teams, but often have trouble finding information about what they’re doing to get out into their communities. We hope that FIRSTAlliances will create a place where it is easy for connections between teams to be made.
What FIRST Programs can sign up for an account?
All FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST LEGO League, FIRST LEGO League Jr, and FIRST Global teams are encouraged to share their outreach programs. FIRST LEGO League teams can post their project, then be able to mention during their project presentations that they shared their project with the FIRST community.
How does a team get involved?
Sign up for an account here, fill out your team entry, then add your team's programs. That’s it! Your team info and programs will be available to view in our directory, and visitors will be able to contact you if they want to collaborate with you!
Why should we sign up?
While anyone can browse and search the directory without signing up for an account, FIRSTAlliances won’t show your team unless you sign up for an account! We strongly encourage all teams to take advantage of the opportunity to feature themselves and their programs... You never know who might see your page and reach out! Signing up on FIRSTAlliances gives you opportunities to help and collaborate with hundreds of other FIRST teams.
If we sign up, what's the responsibility/commitment?
Signing up on FIRSTAlliances doesn't come with many direct responsibilities. By being on the site, you open yourself to being contacted by interesting teams on matters related to your team; it could be related to team programs/initiatives you've written about, mentorship in an area your team is skilled in, a team coming to your pit at competition for help, or perhaps a collaboration request from a local team! Really, all you're committing to is considering helping teams who reach out to you.
I signed up, but didn't get my validation email?
Never fear! First things first, make sure to check your spam folder; sometimes our emails will be sent there instead. If the email is not there, you can have the email resent from the password reset page. Still, If nothing shows up, send our support team an email and we'll work to get you connected.
I want to sign up, but there's not an option for me?
Shoot us an email at support@firstalliances.org! We want everyone to be able to participate and we'll try our best to get you onto the site.
What are the future goals of FIRSTAlliances?
The end goal of FIRSTAlliances is to showcase teams and their impact, spotlight incredible initiatives, and become a base of collaboration among all teams in FIRST. Through easy access to resources, information on team's initiatives and actions, and ease of communication, we want to unite teams with teams they can help. We want to connect teams with similar goals to create the next big collaborative FIRST initiative. We want to enable the creation of more (and more powerful) connections between FIRST teams of all programs and skill levels.
Our Alliance Partners
A huge Thank You to the following teams who have helped us test FIRSTAlliances since it's inception, helped spread the word, and/or were some of the first teams to join our Alliance! Check them out; every single one of them is an example of an awesome FIRST team!
Alliance Partners
We continue to welcome new Alliance partners. Are you a team ready to make sustained/significant contributions and/or help spread the word via social media? Contact us at support@firstalliances.org.
Sponsors
We fund the operating expenses of FIRSTAlliances completely out of pocket; the server, storage, everything. If you wish to sponsor this initiative, please reach out to us at support@firstalliances.org!
© 2017-2019 4-H Exploding Bacon Robotics, FRC Team 1902
FIRSTAlliances is not an official FIRST® program.