[IKE]

At Purdue, we would do a program called the PTS Creativity workshop. It was lead by a professor that had a Creativity course in the ME department. He also lead Pi Tau Sigma. The point of the creativity seminar was to integrate Junior year students with a company for 1 weekend. Basically it was a 2 day event where students and company reps brainstormed and worked on proposals for a major problem the company had. I was able to participate 2 years, and it was a wonderful opportunity.

I started to add a lot of details, and then remembered I signed a NDA (I can't remember if it was with Purdue and the Companies, or just the companies) so had to remove a lot of it. If FIRST sponsored weekend programs similar to this weekend I would be all for it.

If FIRST were sponsoring other Engineering and Design projects like FLL or FTC where engineers are not allowed to work WITH the students, I would not participate. There are a ton of other great programs and projects that students can do on their own. I would only support additional programs that allow the mentors to work WITH and not FOR the students. FIRST would do well to have additional programs like this that do not require the high monetary and time commitment.

I still remember (12 years later) some of the engineers I met those two weekends. To me, they were just your average everyday Superhero engineers (just like the Green Ranger).