Quote:
Originally Posted by M. Krass
What's the story behind Minneapolis? FIRST has been pretty weak up in Minnesota in the past, so who's leading the charge to bring more teams to the area?
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To say FIRST has been pretty weak in MN probably isn't
quite right. FLL has been going strong here since the pilot. FRC however, has never been strong here in MN.
This year MN ballooned from 2 to 16 teams. Boston Scientific and Medtronic were a huge part of this growth with 11 of the 16 teams receiving sponsorship from one of the two companies.
FRC got quite a bit of exposure when 1816 "The Green Machine" demoed their robot at the MN STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Conference at the Science Museum of Minnesota. 1816 also helped start/mentored 3 or 4 of the rookie teams this season.
They also worked with Boston Scientific and the University of Minnesota to host the first MN FRC Kickoff.
Our team hopes to aid the effort to continue the program growth here in MN so our state can make a good showing in our hometown regional in 2008.