College-sponsored teams

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Posted by Patrick Dingle at 05/07/2001 3:50 PM EST


College Student on team #639, Red B^2, from Ithaca High School and Cornell University.



Have any college teams out there (besides 190) actually been successful in getting a significant amount of funding from their college? If so, from what department(s)? I have been meeting with people non stop for the last year... I've been through every department, and whenever funding comes up, it's just a referral to someone else I should contact. Today, I am referred right back by the admissions office to the very first person I talked to at the beginning of the year. They claim (even though they get $30000 per year per 16000 students, not to mention that is only a small fraction of the money they get from alumni) they could only give us about two or three HUNDRED dollars... Oh, but they would be more than happy for us to put their name on our team and go to the competitions and recruit students.

I'm sure some of the other people who have tried to start teams have had similar trouble... Anyone have any suggestions, keeping in mind there are no potential corporate sponsors in the area?

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Posted by Dan at 05/07/2001 10:39 PM EST


Coach on team #247, da Bears, from Berkley High and ComauPico.


In Reply to: College-sponsored teams
Posted by Patrick Dingle on 05/07/2001 3:50 PM EST:



Our team, #247, is co-sponsored by my university, U of Detroit. Granted, our engineering partner contributes significantly more in cash than we do, we provide about 1.5k in cash, unlimited use of our manufacturing lab, and the time and commitment two people.

Our university sponsors college projects (e.g., mini baja) and finds a way to fund it. You could try establishing yourself as a college organization. It might make it easier to get funding. People DO have money in funds that they could contribute to your team, its just finding the right person to talk to. What you need is somone to champion your cause at the college. Maybe a professor or alum. A successful alum can put pressure on the college. Have you tried the dean of engineering? Department chairs? Favorite prof? Remember, you are a 'paying customer'. Be pushy.

Good luck,
Dan
#247, da Bears

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Posted by Scott England at 05/08/2001 12:37 AM EST


College Student on team #401, The Hokie G.U.A.R.D, from Virginia Tech/MCPS and Virginia Tech/VBEP.


In Reply to: College-sponsored teams
Posted by Patrick Dingle on 05/07/2001 3:50 PM EST:



Ok, at first I wrote a huge book of a reply, but I doubt you would really have wanted to hear all that, so here is a concise version.
The Hokie GUARD doesn't get a huge amount of financial support from Tech, our biggest asset is the faculty support. Key to getting more support from the college I believe is getting some key faculty members to support you. We brought a professor from the electrical and computer engineering department with us to Nationals at the end of first year. This year (our second) we have the support of the Co-Dean of the electrical and Computer engineering department, as well as that ECPE professor who now leads the team. The several adults on the VT faculty on the team have managed to get us great amounts of support from the community(but then there is not much up here in the Appalachians except for cows and Virginia Tech). On the student scale. I don't know if it works this way at Cornell. But all student clubs can go before a budget board meeting and ask for money. Also there is the SEC (student engineering counsel) with a 30,000 budget that will hand some money out to almost any student engineering project (there are lots at Tech) that comes and makes a presentation, and though it wasn't planned this way, it's probably convenient now that two members of the robotics team are now on the counsel. Best of luck to getting more support. I hope everyone gets something out of this. I'd like to see a FIRST team at every university in several years.
~Scott
GO HOKIES (and check out those dashing young men with the technicolor hair in the gallery)


: Have any college teams out there (besides 190) actually been successful in getting a significant amount of funding from their college? If so, from what department(s)? I have been meeting with people non stop for the last year... I've been through every department, and whenever funding comes up, it's just a referral to someone else I should contact. Today, I am referred right back by the admissions office to the very first person I talked to at the beginning of the year. They claim (even though they get $30000 per year per 16000 students, not to mention that is only a small fraction of the money they get from alumni) they could only give us about two or three HUNDRED dollars... Oh, but they would be more than happy for us to put their name on our team and go to the competitions and recruit students.

: I'm sure some of the other people who have tried to start teams have had similar trouble... Anyone have any suggestions, keeping in mind there are no potential corporate sponsors in the area?

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Posted by Carolyn Duncan at 05/08/2001 9:00 AM EST


Student on team #495, The Pack, from Jamestown High School and VBEP/Raytheon/Saic.


In Reply to: Virginia Tech team
Posted by Scott England on 05/08/2001 12:37 AM EST:



: GO HOKIES (and check out those dashing young men with the technicolor hair in the gallery)

Who's in the pic? I didn't see it.
C-ya,
Carolyn
"I stay too long. But here my father comes.
A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave."
~Laertes from Hamlet Act I scene III

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Posted by Scott England at 05/08/2001 11:00 AM EST


College Student on team #401, The Hokie G.U.A.R.D, from Virginia Tech/MCPS and Virginia Tech/VBEP.


In Reply to: Re: Virginia Tech team
Posted by Carolyn Duncan on 05/08/2001 9:00 AM EST:



yeah yeah, sorry, I put my foot in my mouth and said that before I uploaded the picture, then discovered that the picture was too big to upload in its current form. I don't have a copy of photoshop, but I'll put my people to work on trimming down the photo so its under 250 kb so I can upload it. Its just me and Jeremy, a picture of the color our hair was at the NASA Langley regional(before most of his maroon dye washed out and it looked hot pink, space coast would probably appreciate it though)
Ok, so here's a quote that's a little late for valentines day, but you may call it an interesting goal of engineering, either way its a great quote, so enjoy
"The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world...we shall have discovered fire." ~Pierre De Chardin

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Posted by Carolyn Duncan at 05/09/2001 1:33 PM EST


Student on team #495, The Pack, from Jamestown High School and VBEP/Raytheon/Saic.


In Reply to: technicolor hair pic
Posted by Scott England on 05/08/2001 11:00 AM EST:



I saw the pic, looks great! Tell Jeremy not to be so happy in the future. I didn't get to reply to your Decathalon post so I'll do that now. There was a lot of tumbling and balancing, gymnastics, and shooting and scoring, basketball. I know they're obvious but...
Here are 2 great quotes for you.
" But if thou live, remembered not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee."
"But flowers distill'd, though they with winter meet,
Leese but their show;their substance still lives sweet."
Both are Shakespeare sonnet III and V, respectively.

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Posted by Matt Leese at 05/08/2001 1:44 PM EST


College Student on team #73, Tigerbolt, from Edison Technical HS and Alstom & Fiber Technologies & RIT.


In Reply to: College-sponsored teams
Posted by Patrick Dingle on 05/07/2001 3:50 PM EST:



RIT in the past has been known to sponsor FIRST very
well. I was told they paid for RIT students travel
to Florida along with providing ample machine shop
time. This was also while Harris/RF was the sponsor
and Harris provided a lot of sponsorship also. This
year, RIT managed to come up with about $4000 on very
short notice (took them about a week, about
mid-February). We're more or less locked out of the
machine shop because Formula 1 team has precedence.
We do have access to machining done in the CNC shop
however (offer came too late to use it this year).
We're trying to find more funding and given more lead
time we figure we'll have a better shot at it but
unfortunately budgets have already been submitted for
the next fiscal year. Really, I think the best way
to go about finding fundingg is to get a faculty
"champion." Basically, someone who's willing to go
out there and help you get money. Basically, that's
how we got the money we did this year and the money
were hoping for next year. Otherwise, just ask
anybody who's willing to listen.

Matt

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Posted by Ryan Patridge at 05/08/2001 2:54 PM EST


Engineer on team #111, WildStang, from Rolling Meadows / Wheeling HS and Motorola.


In Reply to: College-sponsored teams
Posted by Patrick Dingle on 05/07/2001 3:50 PM EST:



When I was at Cornell and on the Formula SAE racing team, we all had to look for donations wherever we could get them. I was on the fuel team, among others, and was able to get several expensive parts donated for the car both years I was on the team. I know last year the team got two $3000+ differentials donated. We did have a substantial sponsorship from GM, along with many other smaller sponsorships from local companies and team alumni, but we saved a lot of money just by making most of the car ourselves, taking full advantage of one of Cornell's machine shops (BTW, FSAE has dibs on the Emerson machine shop in Rhodes! :-P) No, Cornell didn't give us any money either, but they did give us an office in Upson to work out of, an auto lab the team shares with another team, and use of their machine shops. In short, look for company sponsorships and local facilities you can take advantage of, or quit FIRST and join the racing team.

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Posted by Patrick Dingle at 05/08/2001 5:18 PM EST


College Student on team #639, Red B^2, from Ithaca High School and Cornell University.


In Reply to: Cornell FSAE
Posted by Ryan Patridge on 05/08/2001 2:54 PM EST:



Our advisor is the head of Emerson lab! muhahahaha... Although i've never really run into a situation where there aren't free machines.

In seriousness though, thanks for the advice... I'm starting to realize they won't give us any money, but they will help us find it... So I'm going to see what they can find. We'll find a way.

And NEVER NEVER NEVER will I quit FIRST for FSAE!!! hahahahahahhahaha. NEVER... I have some friends on FSAE who are trying to recruit me and it isn't gunna happen. You evil FSAE people won't leave me alone. However, I might get involved in one of the mechatronics projects once I get the FIRST team here self-sufficient.

Patrick

: When I was at Cornell and on the Formula SAE racing team, we all had to look for donations wherever we could get them. I was on the fuel team, among others, and was able to get several expensive parts donated for the car both years I was on the team. I know last year the team got two $3000+ differentials donated. We did have a substantial sponsorship from GM, along with many other smaller sponsorships from local companies and team alumni, but we saved a lot of money just by making most of the car ourselves, taking full advantage of one of Cornell's machine shops (BTW, FSAE has dibs on the Emerson machine shop in Rhodes! :-P) No, Cornell didn't give us any money either, but they did give us an office in Upson to work out of, an auto lab the team shares with another team, and use of their machine shops. In short, look for company sponsorships and local facilities you can take advantage of, or quit FIRST and join the racing team.

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Posted by Matt Leese at 05/08/2001 5:38 PM EST


College Student on team #73, Tigerbolt, from Edison Technical HS and Alstom & Fiber Technologies & RIT.


In Reply to: Re: Cornell FSAE
Posted by Patrick Dingle on 05/08/2001 5:18 PM EST:



There's such a thing as a selfsufficient FIRST team?
I want one! ;)

Matt who needs more free time....

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Posted by Patrick Dingle at 05/08/2001 6:06 PM EST


College Student on team #639, Red B^2, from Ithaca High School and Cornell University.


In Reply to: Re: Cornell FSAE
Posted by Matt Leese on 05/08/2001 5:38 PM EST:



Well, as long as it's not sufficient on ME, I'm happy :)

Patrick

: There's such a thing as a selfsufficient FIRST team?
: I want one! ;)

: Matt who needs more free time....