Russian Teams in FIRST!!!
 

So what do you guys think about having soviet based teams in the FIRST competition?

ya dumayu chto mi mojim pastroyet robotov luche chem ani.

soviet first teams could really make first a lot better.

sure, but the only problem i see is money. not that i'm saying russia is poor, it's just the fact that there's no regionals in russia, and to travel so far is kinda expensive. if you can pull it off, that's great, and any people will be accepted in FIRST, but i just don't know if you could get enough money together, or at least right away, to make it worthwhile. i mean, my team had trouble getting money this year, although, getting sponser shouldn't be too bad, seeing as there are no other teams in russia, yet ;).

That would be great!
 

That would be great to see a Russian team compete in FIRST... or a Ukrane (sp?) team, or a team from another former Soviet controlled country.

The Soviets had tons of excellent engineers, and I would assume that is still true today. The Moscow State University is impressively huge and has a legendary engineering school which has turned out engineers for decades.

One of the latest engineering trends, TRIZ, came from a guy from Russia named Altshuller. TRIZ outlines the method of the process of innovation and can take you step by step through an inventive process. For more on TRIZ, here is a link (there are loads if you do a search on TRIZ):
TRIZ Journal

I was lucky enough to spend a week in Russia when I was a Senior in college, and it was a very eye-opening experience.

Of course, for a Russian FIRST team, the big hurdle would be travel. What makes the most sense would be for them to compete at New York City, where it would probably be the cheapest airfare from Eastern Europe.

I'm sure that a properly supported Russian team could make an immediate impact on the FIRST competition and would come up with some very innovative solutions to a FIRST game.

Andy B.

Re: Russian Teams in FIRST!!!
 

"Soviet"? Someone's still living in the Cold War ;) Soviet implies Communist, which isn't necesarily Russian anymore. Actually, though, now that I think about it, in some ways a communist team would be the perfect team. After all, isn't Gracious Professionalism all about treating everyone equal and giving them equal respect? Aren't the pits at FIRST competitions all about sharing your tools among the needy? Doesn't Woody make references to the FIRST community working as a collective whole for the good of the society by sharing knowledge and expierience amongst all members, rather than having the Community consist of a handful of good teams that try to dominate and supress all competition in order to be the 'best'?

...but communist philosophy is getting a bit off-topic. Back to the topic, yeah, a good ol' ruskie team would be pretty cool. I'm Polish, so I'd like to see some good ol' eastern europeans in FIRST.... /me awaits the Polish Robotics Team jokes to start streaming in

Yeah baby
 

Let's take this thing worldwide!:cool:

the real fun will start when we get an extra terrestrial FIRST team... :p

sure!
 

There's nothing wrong with Russian teams, but where do you want take them from?

you need russian people to organize teams, lol

And why would especially russian teams make FIRST so much better? What is so special about russians???

And yeah, I'm actually trying to found a team in Germany, as soon as I go back this usmmer (I'm here in the US as an exchange student)...

Read all about it in this thread:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...?threadid=3885


So long, Phil

where are you getting "communist" from. by soviet i mean like from the former soviet union......communism is dead dude.......

and in terms of money, well the life style in russia makes money a comodity not quite necessary to have a team over there, and ofcoarse is quiet attainable for entering the First competions in the US. Personally i am originally from Keiv Ukrain, and i think if a team from there entered FIRST it would trully show how much of an impact FIRST has on the entire world.......

Re: sure!
 

I sense a bit of world war II resentment here....... the war is over dude, get on with life......russia...germany.....FIRST.......thats what its all about

ok, come on, let's not go into bickering about the past. this was about whether or not russian teams would make FIRST better. answer, yes. going off topic, german teams in FIRST, that's even cooler (added on with the russian teams). heck, if every country had a FIRST team, how cool would that be? dean's wish would have come true, and we would have changed the world. for better or worse, i have no idea, but think about it. if FIRST spreads enoough, it might become a major thing in the world. that would be really cool.

to get to all of that though, we need one thing. for FIRST to spread beyond america, specifically beyond north america, cause the canadians are getting into it now. true, we have brazillians, and britians, but that's only two countries. we need teams all over the world, and only then will FIRST truely have become a culture. besides, how cool would it be to go to nats, and meet kids from everywhere around the world? heh, you could even make a social studies project out of going to nats :p. i personally would love to meet kids from around the world.

ok, i'm rambling on here, but you get the point. stop bickering about whose nation is better than whose, and think in the big picture. maybe if there's FIRST teams around the world, it could help lead to world peace. hey, you never know.

Re: Re: sure!
 

Hey, Phil does have a point: why not French teams, or New Zealand teams, or Israeli teams??? Why Russian teams in particular??!!

Bringing up the second world war in response to a valid point is rude. Phil has a good point. (Nice point, Phil)

Also, Soviet - Communism. There is no more USSR. Look's like someone ELSE is living in the Cold war;) . They're called Russia now, not the Soviets, and calling them "ruskies" is a great way to get them to want to join FIRST.

The problem is definity in logistics, travel would cost a fortune. We'd need to start a European FIRST competition, Germany would be a central location, close enough to enable most European countries to fly to, and stable enough to provide security and what not.

Does any country other than France has any theme parks, a la EPCOT??

arrrg, everyone, forget I said anything about soviet communism jargon... apparently I typed something that was interpretted not the way I meant it to be... the post was supposed to be a joking, light-hearted post that pointed out calling them 'soviet' isn't really accurate because the USSR fell. Soviet implies you're refering to them in the time of the USSR, or, when they were communist. Then jokingly I went on to point out some of the similarities between communist ideals and FIRSTian ideals, not really implying anything. Again, I meant that post to be facetious, not really implying anything. But, because it's hard to express emotions such as sarcasm or satire by just typing things, apparently the post wasn't interpretted like it was meant to be. Just stop arguing and forget I ever started anything

Re: Re: Re: sure!
 

Thanks Ben...
It was simply wondering why we were talking about russian temas in particular, I didn't really see any connection...

Phil

Phil, SlaveofChernobl was talking about a Russian team for the same reason you're starting a team in Germany. If you'll read one of the previous posts, he says that he's originally from the Ukraine, so it makes perfect sense for him to want a team coming out of his home.

Oh, and Ben, I think that Legoland is either in Holland or in one of the Scandinavian countries. Legoland would be a riot for FIRSTers!!!

LEGOLAND!!!! Sign me up! it would also be a great place for FIRST Lego League championships:D :D :D

All in favor of going to LEGOLAND for the FIRST championships say "aye!!":D

What an awesome idea!! I thought of Disneyland Paris (yawn) but Legoland....whoa....I see some serious fun potential happening!:) Sweet suggestion, Michael. Good thinking.

I think its in Denmark, but I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure it's in Denmark.

I got it by now that Michael (that he's from the Ukraine), I read the post that he wrote about that. I just wanted to clarify that I didn't know that in my first post, since he explained it after my first post, while he was also talking about WW II for whatever reason, which i thought was strange....

But it's okay by now, everybody seems to see what the confusion was about, and done now... ;-)

Phil


PS: Gotta add an AYE here, and yeah, Denmark sounds reasonable to me, think you're right Ben...

A quick three-second Google search reveals the answer: http://www.lego.com/legoland/ ;)

One in Windsor (England), Billund (Denmark), California, and Deutschland. I say the one in Germany would be the most fun :D

hmm, i feel like heading out to CA next spring.... anyone for a national championship in legoland CA? :D

AYE!:D

Search. Ha!

Why didn't you just ask me?

Obviously, the Legoland in Denmark is the oldest, followed by Windsor, and the California, and then Germany, I think. I could be all mixed up, though.

Either way, they rock.

And, to keep things on topic, international FIRST teams are a good thing. The more we get, the better the chance of there being an international regional, and that'd be tres-cool.

LegoLand
 

LegoLand, CA is where we have the California Lego League champs. I went there for that event a couple of years ago. I was impressed by the Lego structures, even if they do "cheat" sometimes by giving them steel frames.

The competition was pretty good too. But most high schoolers would be bored by the theme park aspects. The rides are pretty tame except one moderately thrilling rollercoaster. ( for those of you familiar with Magic Mountain, think "Gold Rusher")

There is also an Autopia like area where kids get to "learn to drive". But unlike Disney's Autopia, you can decide where you want to go. You are also expected to observe stop signs and traffic lights. I was impressed that they would build such a thing here in the lawsuit capitol of the world. The only problem is that most high schoolers are too big!

Of course FIRST students would be so fascinated by the engineering aspects of the place, that they wouldn't even notice the rides anyway, right? It is a great place for kids 3-10 or 12, but after that I think most kids would be bored. So I don't think we'd want them hosting the Championship for FIRST. Not that I'd object to having it here in CA, I can just think of better places.

ChrisH

darn, hmm, any room for a national championship in hawaii? :D and if there's a russian team, it's closer for them too :p

well,...
 

...there's a Legoland in Germany? I didn't even know that and I'm German... :-(

And well yeah, you all just come to Germany and visit me, then I don't feel so alone in my home country which doesn't even have a FIRST team yet (hopefully we do by September, I'll work on it)!!

So long, Phil

heh, there'd better be a german team by next september, or else... :D

Hawaii, yay! someplace i can fit in!
(w/ our hawaiin shirts in nj))

Re: well,...
 

http://www.lego.com/eng/legoland/deu...nd/default.asp

It's brand-spankin' new.

Of course, if it weren't for our lawsuit prone society, you'd still be able to drive freely about Disneyland's Autopia! . . . and, of course, if they hadn't neutered it in 1959 to make for 3 other very cool attractions. (Matterhorn Mountain, The Submarine Voyage, and the Disneyland Monorail, for those keeping track at home.)

god michael, sometimes you scare me :p

Only sometimes?

I should be doing much better than that by now.

It's time to regroup and double my efforts!

ahhh!!!! run for your lives!!!!! ;)

maybe we should warn the russians about you, they may have second thoughts about starting a team... :D

You scare me too Michael, but definitely all the time...Especially when you try to dance to "Jump On It" during building time.

As for the real reason for this topic, I think that having Russian, and foreign teams in general would be great, both for widening the scope of FIRST and also to get more media coverage (as in, maybe less comparing us to battlebots?). With foreign teams, in addition to nationals, we'll also need to have internationals, preferably in a neutral location...hmm, does Sweden have any theme parks?

Proud to be Ukrainian!
 

Let's all us Ukrainians band together and make a new team. SlaveOfChernobl, Michael, and I are going to create the new Team 1000 - Team Ukraine. We welcome new members.

u dance o 'Jump On It'?.... niiiice