F.I.R.S.T. Robotics

Hey guys, not sure if you've heard about the F.I.R.S.T. program but it's great.
F.I.R.S.T. stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. It's a high school program where teams of students get a challenge/game that they have six weeks to build a robot to compete in with teams from all over the world ! Each game consist of six different teams, in teams of three, that compete to win, although that's not the main point. Each team has mentors from professionals in the engineering and technology fields. This gives the students the ability to work with professionals to find out what the industry is like. There are also marketing and other ways to participate.
In the competitions the teams compete for other awards as well, such as technology awards and safety. The most prestigious award is the Chairman's Award, where teams are judged by community and team involvement. Things like getting the community to participate with the team as well as helping other teams get started. Mostly it's judged on Gracious Professionalism, which is good teamwork and attitude, both on and off the field. Helping other teams, even those you are competing against and just being a good person.

This is a wonderful program that I hope you all can check out. For those of you with kids who are interested in the technology field please check it out. They also have programs for elementary and middle school. You yourself can volunteer to help a team or at a regional or at any point in the process.
Sorry for the long post but the Wisconsin Regional is going on now, and I, as well as three out of four brothers are involved in the program and it's great. Those in Wisconsin check it out. It's at the U.W. Panthers arena in Milwaukee and is free for the public.

If you want to check it out here's the website: www.usfirst.org
There's also plenty of youtube videos and you can even watch the Wisconsin Regional in real time at www.atthecontrols.com

Again please check it out and I know I kind of rambled so if you have questions I'll do my best to answer

Have a great day

a reply to: KingKelson

Robot challenges to provide security, violate your rights, and clean up messes… I don;t know about "FIRST"…

DARPA robot challenge winner this year was the Koreans. The only bot to finish all the tasks without falling over, crashing or locking up. The tasks performed were to ride in transport to a location, get out the vehicle, open a door, turn a valve, drill a hole in a wall, remove a wall plug, navigate debris and climb a set of stairs…

Each of these could be facsimile duties currently performed by swat.

Edit: Time lapse of autonomous Korean robot completing prescribed tasks.

a reply to: KingKelson

Very cool! I was involved in a "competition" called Odyssey of the Mind when I was in high school. There were various different categories, ours was mechanical engineering. I've never forgotten it, as it was a really interesting collection of a bunch of really intelligent students, all in friendly competition, in an environment where being smart and applying your mind to something while also helping others was central to the whole experience. Most of the time, high school isn't exactly the ideal environment for bright kids who care about learning to actually learn. I'm really interested in things like this, because I have my own kids now. My son seems to be born to be an engineer of some sort - by the time he's through school it'll probably something like "Virtual Reality Quantum Construction."

a reply to: intrptr

That is a legit point but your reply makes me wonder if you looked at any of the links provided. If you did and still feel this way then cool and point noted, sir

a reply to: dogstar23

Very cool! You should look into F.I.R.S.T. then and if your son's high school doesn't have a team it's quite easy to start one, although it does cost a fair amount of money. It's also very easy to get sponsorships and fundraiser so please look into it if that sounds interesting. Alot of the big sponsors are like Rockwell Automation, GE Health care and companies like that. Also you really don't need to be Jan engineer to be a mentor. Anyone is really acceptable as long as they can work with kids and help them grow. Good luck to you sir!