FIRST kicked off the 2016-2017 FTC season on Saturday, November 10 by revealing the new challenge called Velocity Vortex.

The Minnesota kickoff at the University of Minnesota was a big success with educational sessions provided by FTC teams; a professional track with speakers from Stratasys, Recon Robotics and AndyMark; and a keynote by the one and only Woodie Flowers. The U of M's Great Hall was packed with more than 700 people to listen to the keynote and attend sessions.

The event was hosted by High Tech Kids, The Green Girls STEM Foundation, Hartfiel Automation, the University of Minnesota, The Green Girls Robotics Team 7190 and Epic Robotics Team 8712. To learn more about the season's challenge watch the following video:

http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/game-and-season

High Tech Kids needs volunteers for regional and state tournaments. It's a great way to give back, see cool robots that future engineers are building and have a lot of fun. If you're interested contact High Tech Kids (www.hightechkids.org) or The Green Girls Robotics Team (greengirlsrobotics@gmail.com) or the Green Girls STEM Foundation (ggstemfoundation@gmail.com).