LAS VEGAS , NV - Dozens of robots and their high school-aged creators will invade Las Vegas for a unique high-tech spectator sporting event, when FIRST Robotics comes to UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center March 31- April 2, 2005. 2,000 students on 38 teams from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii will participate in the first-ever Las Vegas regional for the prestigious competition. As a whole, the FIRST Robotics tournament involves more than 20,000 students from 27 countries in an intense experience designed to sharpen problem-solving skills, promote science education and bring scholarships and international acclaim to bright young minds. In the competition, student teams are challenged to build working robots optimized to perform complex tasks in an exciting, head-to-head game format. Six Clark County teams will be among those vying for the right to compete in the 2005 FIRST championship event at Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

" Las Vegas is such an exciting place - home to so many unique marvels of engineering technology - that it's the perfect place for a FIRST Robotics regional," said Nick Fiore, Chair of the FIRST Las Vegas Regional organizing committee. "We are thrilled to bring this competition to Southern Nevada, and expect to see an outstanding event."

Volunteers from the Las Vegas area are needed to help make this unique event a success for the many student participants. For more information, log on to www.usfirst.org and click the link "Volunteer for a FRC Regional." A wide range of skills and experience are needed.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a multinational non-profit organization, that aspires to transform culture, making science, math, engineering, and technology as cool for kids as sports are today. Corporate and educational sponsorship and volunteer participation fuel the FIRST Robotics Competition.

The FIRST Robotics Competition teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The program is a life-changing, career-molding experience--and a lot of fun. Teams come from Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Great Britain, and almost every U.S. state. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines.

Colleges, universities, corporations, businesses, and individuals provide scholarships to FIRST participants. Involved engineers experience again many of the reasons they chose engineering as a profession, and the companies they work for contribute to the community while they prepare and create their future workforce. The competition shows students that the technological fields hold many opportunities and that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering, and invention are exciting and interesting.

Sponsors for the FIRST Las Vegas regional include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Bechtel Nevada, Bechtel SAIC, Jan's Iron Works, Southwest Gas Corporation, Technology Ventures Corporation and UNLV's Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, which has also provided graduate student mentors for Clark County's participating teams. The FIRST Las Vegas Regional competition is free and open to the public. For additional information, please visit www.usfirst.org