[Daru]

Hi All,

My name is Dave Fairbanks, I am a junior Computer Engineering student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was the president and team leader of CARD team 6, SCOE Robotics, as well as a member of the game design committee for the demo.

I was a FIRSTer all four years of high school, and continued for 4 years as a mentor in college. In my time as a mentor, I started and coached 2 FLL teams and 3 Jr. FLL teams, along with mentoring the 2 FRC teams I became involved with. My team members were involved in all levels of FIRST and mentored a total of 6 FRC teams, while our school sponsors many more.

I found out about the demo in late December, and immediately sent an email to the MSOE mailing lists. I got 50 emails per hour for several hours from people who were very interested in this new college level competition! The interest is there and everyone was extremely positive towards our program, we're waiting to hear from FIRST about our future!!

Starting a team was very difficult in the narrow time frame we had. Becoming an official MSOE organization required a lot of steps and paperwork before we could begin to fund raise. My biggest advice to anyone who wanted to start a team for next year would be to start NOW! Develop the relationships with staff and faculty of your school, and develop relationships with your local FRC teams to beg and borrow parts from (a woot woot to our saviors 537, 706, and 1103)

Please, continue the discussion here and we can answer anything we know the answer to!

Thanks,

Dave Fairbanks
President, Team 6, SCOE Robotics
Computer Engineer, 2012