St. Louis, Missouri, is about to become the Mecca this week for over 15,000 robotically inclined students. The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship, an annual robot-building competition for school-age children from all over the world, takes place over four days and awards teams for building machines that compete in various mechanical and athletic challenges and games. This year, the championship is split into two separate regional events, with the second taking place this week in St. Louis, Missouri. All told, the FIRST Championship is expected to bring together almost 100,000 participants and spectators. Related: Mark Zuckerberg’s Distorted Reality Even though it gathers crowds that would max out an NFL stadium or two, you wouldn’t be remiss if you had never heard of FIRST. The annual event has flown under the radar since its inception in 1992. Dean Kamen, the prolific inventor responsible for the Segway, among hundreds of other patents, held the first competition at a modest