[Matt Leese]

To put it simply, starting a college team is hard (starting any team is hard). It's probably harder than you imagine right now. It takes a lot of time. It probably takes more time than you can imagine now.

That said, I would still recommend doing it if you feel you can put the time and energy into it. It is a very rewarding experience and you can learn a lot by doing it.

As for the specific questions listed, how involved the school is really depends on the school. There really are three things that can be provided: money, people, and space. I know that WPI tends to do all three. RIT (my school) is really only able to provide people and some money (although this may be changing in the near future). So the level of involvement is very different from school to school.

As for how to go about it, my number one suggestion is to talk to people about it. Tell everyone that you know or meet about it. Tell your professors. Tell your friends. Try and talk to the Dean of Engineering about it (actually, you may want to talk to the Associate or Assistant Deans; often they can be a better help than going straight to the Dean). Talk to the various student organizations about it. Beyond all things, actually plan to do it. Commit to what year you want to compete on because if you don't, you never will.

I'm somewhat in the process (I started it on my airplane flight to Atlanta) of writing a case study based on RIT's experience with FIRST. I'm not sure when it'll be done but I hope to post it on Chief Delphi then.

Matt