[Adam Shapiro]

I'm currently on the Cornell DARPA Urban Challenge team. It's definitely an amazing experience, however I don't think it would be very feasible at a high school level unfortunately. It's essentially a full-time job (even more so than FIRST if you can believe it!) for everyone on the team which includes some grad/phd students and a few professors. Not to mention the incredible amount of resources it takes to build a vehicle.

This year DARPA was able to provide grants to 11 teams, including my own, as initial funding. Teams could submit grant proposals and the selected teams would receive $1 million to proceed. I promise you absolutely none of this money will go unused to give you an idea of what it takes to compete.

I'm not sure if there will be another challenge after this one but I certainly hope so. I would definitely recommend getting into it in college if it's available to you, and if not see if you can start a team. Remember, colleges tend to have a lot more in the way of financial resources than most high schools. This competition has been a huge learning experience for me, just as FIRST was all 4 years, and it even helped secure a co-op for me this fall at Cisco.

If anyone has any questions, or would like any more information, feel free to ask. Also, if anyone's planning a trip to Cornell any time in the future and would like to see what we're working on feel free to let me know. I'd be happy to show you around.