I don't really care for the new logo too much... it looks like one of the higher ups at FIRST was like "Hey Jim*, we need a flashy logo, you know, one that the kids can relate to... see what you can do!" And thus, Jim worked tediously into the night running on 3 cups of coffee and a granola bar. Using only MS Paint and Word, Jim created the current FIRST logo.
And that my friends is how I think the current logo came about.
(*Jim is a fake name used to protect the actual creator of this logo.)