Tom Provencher of Bedford stands with the robot just constructed by West High School’s Team 501 for the FIRST robotics competition, which takes place Thursday, Feb. 28, through Saturday, March 1, at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. Forty-eight teams from around the Northeast had six weeks to design and build a robot capable of ...

BY KEVIN SHALVEYAs their robot was packed away at the end of the six-week build period, West High School’s FIRST team had to hope it would work at the competition. It had never been driven or tested on the playing field. But the team of Hooksett, Bedford, Manchester and Goffstown students won the annual BAE Systems Granite State Regional ...