The FIRST Tech Challenge-Iowa Championship, presented by Rockwell Collins, Inc. will be held February 23-24, 2018 at the Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in Coralville, IA.

The event will have 48 teams from across Iowa that qualified through the League Tournaments and the Super Qualifier Tournaments (2017-2018 Season) to advance to the FIRST Tech Challenge-Iowa Championship.The Iowa Championship brings teams from dozens of communities across Iowa to compete in head-to-head competitions. The UI is a FIRST Tech Challenge affiliate partner, in cooperation with official national sponsor Rockwell Collins, Inc., which handles the state of Iowa.

FIRST Tech Challenge introduces students to engineering problem solving and design and is designed for those who want to compete head to head, using a sports model. Teams of students are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. The robot kit is reusable from year-to-year, and is programmed using a variety of languages. Teams, including coaches, mentors, and volunteers are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles. Awards are given for the competition as well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments.

Last year's Iowa Championship attracted a crowd of 1,300 people, and had a collection of 48 robots taking part in the statewide robotics competition. The teams had advanced from more than 200 First Tech Challenge teams across the state by winning smaller competitions throughout Iowa. Each group, designed a robot capable of competing head-to-head with other robots.

Winners on Saturday advance to the Super Regional Championship March 17-19 in Cedar Rapids. That championship, Whittaker said, includes robotics teams from 13 states.

For more information, including the schedule, go to http://iafirst.org/