Thread: FIRST-like Programs at the College Level
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Unread 03-11-2014, 16:52
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Re: FIRST-like Programs at the College Level
I was in your exact position when I arrived at North Dakota State University. I missed FIRST and needed something to fill the void it left. None of the collegiate engineering challenges offered by NDSU seem to satisfy said void. I think my favorite part about FIRST was that it offered a completely new challenge every year. With each new challenge came a new opportunity to be creative on a large scale (meaning robot's are dramatically different from year to year). With programs like SAE and others, the challenge is similar if not the same year in and year out. The ability to be creative on a large scale diminishes (especially as an incoming freshman working amongst a group of people who have been working on the project for years). Since no clubs existed that satisfied me, I decided to form a new club.

Essentially this new club consists of 2 different parts. A FIRST related part and an engineering challenge part. The FIRST related part includes volunteering at local regionals/districts (since all clubs at NDSU require a certain number of volunteer hours from members, it works out well), creating demonstrations of certain mechanical and electrical functions, making presentations to teams and high schools in the area about how these functions work. If things go the right way then our club will also be attempting to build a robot in 3 days for demonstration purposes. The engineering challenge part of our club essentially offers a think-tank like group to assist people on their senior projects. This part of our group also takes on ideas from people and tries to make them a reality. For example a member of our club thought it would be cool to build a quadcopter with an infrared sensor on it. This quadcopter could be used by farmers to check on their cattle to see if they are ready to calf.

The great thing about this club concept for me is that it allows an individual to stay connected to FIRST while still growing their knowledge and taking on real-world problems at the same time. If anybody want to know more about my club or needs tips on how to start one themselves PM me.

Maybe starting a club in the mold of this one will substitute your want for FIRST?
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