Among the many great Collegiate-level engineering competitions there are:
http://students.sae.org/cds/
http://www.aiche.org/community/students/chem-e-car
http://www.asce.org/concrete_canoe/
https://www.aisc.org/content.aspx?id=780
And there are many more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard
One of the things that I don't like about college-level engineering competitions is that many of them have the same task each year.
Take Formula SAE Racing-
The challenge every year is to build a fast vehicle that wins races.
It doesn't have the variety of games that FIRST offers. It doesn't have the in-depth game strategy or defense that FIRST offers. (Or at least it doesn't seem to. I've never been a big fan of sports or competitions that don't allow for weaker athletes/competitors to win by playing intelligently- but that's a different discussion.)
Many of these competitions are about making incremental improvements on previous designs- many of which are important engineering challenges, and I'm not trying to knock those who do these competitions whatsoever- I just don't find much enjoyment in them personally.
I would love a collegiate version of FIRST personally. I would love a collegiate robotics competition with an open ended game to study and design new solutions for- not a robotics skills challenge.
However, I also think the lack of a collegiate FIRST competition can be good for FRC teams- college student mentors can be a huge help.
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I think that you, like many FIRSTers, are unaware of the many subtleties in events like FSAE. I had one mentor/teacher tell me that he "didn't respect FSAE" which is a horrific attitude (not saying that you have it, just that I've seen a trend of FIRSTers not fully understanding such competitions). The fact of the matter is that it's a very difficult competition (only a small number of cars finish every dynamic event) with a LOT of room for creativity. I know many of the cars look the same, but the variety in engines, transmissions, drive layout, induction choice, tire selection, etc makes all of the cars very different. There is (or, can be) a lot of strategy behind each design decision because of how the point structure is laid out.
Plus you get to drive a race car. If you thought being behind the glass in FRC is a rush...