Quote:
Originally Posted by davidthefat
So majority of FIRST's purposes are just head fakes. Its not really to teach you how to build a robot, but more like learning to finish with deadlines. Not to teach you to program robots in the low level but to learn how to work with other departments efficiently.
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FIRST is NOT an educational institution. They are not here to teach you !
FIRST has a vision and a mission - it is on their website.
FIRST is here to inspire you, to challenge you. Part of that process is giving you a task too hard, resources too little, people too many, time too short. It is microcosm of the real world experience.
You will almost never ever find a useful job where the customer spoon feeds you the answers and or give you unlimited resources to take the time to do whatever project pops into your mind. If you find that job you will be living in the "ivory tower".
What your "customer" (external, internal, private, public, etc) wants more than anything is a cost effective, relevant solution to their problem. That is the realm of applied engineering, and yes sometimes applied engineering has to do a lot of basic research.
If you want to be a professor and do applied or theoretical research you still will not live in an "Ivory Tower". Your work will be funded by someone. You have to convince them that it is important and should be funded.
Do not underestimate the importance of being able to motivate yourself learn, to meet deadlines, to work with other people and department, and to respond to their needs and requirements. If you can learn how to do these things you will be well prepared to work as an applied engineer, research engineer or scientist (professor), or many other things.
For a student that chooses to embrace the challenges FIRST offers, they will receive in return 'years' worth of practical experience that is valuable to both the employee and employer, well before college graduation.