The subtle disadvantages of being a FIRST Alumni

[faust1706]

Let me start off by stating that my life will be forever better after doing (4 years) of FRC. I made life long friends (looking at you, yash), and it exposed me to things I may have never known existed.

But there is a somewhat darker side to it. It makes students too hard ahead. We have all seen it. The brightest kid in middle school wash out and become a c average student in high school.

The statistics on my team don't lie. Yeah, nearly every senior goes off to an engineering school, which is great, don't get me wrong, but how many finish it out? There are a surprising number of our alumni who had to hit the restart button on life after high school. I'm sure this isn't the case everywhere, and it probably has never been discussed.

Allow me to introduce myself, I am a freshman at MST, it is THE engineering school in Missouri. I learned how to program my sophomore year under a boeing engineer, for whom I am forever grateful for, and I didn't stop learning there. I published two papers in the field of computer vision and placed third at the international science fair. Where am I now? Bored out of my mind academically at a supposedly amazing school. I am too far ahead of my peers. I am working in a graduate level lab doing computer vision and I am seeing what the grad students are doing wrong.

What I'm trying to get at is sometimes what seems like an advantage can be a (minor) disadvantage. Keep that in mind.

[MrBasse]

This doesn't sound like a disadvantage to me. It sounds like an opportunity that you are letting slip away.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by faust1706

Let me start off by stating that my life will be forever better after doing (4 years) of FRC. I made life long friends (looking at you, yash), and it exposed me to things I may have never known existed.

But there is a somewhat darker side to it. It makes students too hard ahead. We have all seen it. The brightest kid in middle school wash out and become a c average student in high school.

The statistics on my team don't lie. Yeah, nearly every senior goes off to an engineering school, which is great, don't get me wrong, but how many finish it out? There are a surprising number of our alumni who had to hit the restart button on life after high school. I'm sure this isn't the case everywhere, and it probably has never been discussed.

Allow me to introduce myself, I am a freshman at MST, it is THE engineering school in Missouri. I learned how to program my sophomore year under a boeing engineer, for whom I am forever grateful for, and I didn't stop learning there. I published two papers in the field of computer vision and placed third at the international science fair. Where am I now? Bored out of my mind academically at a supposedly amazing school. I am too far ahead of my peers. I am working in a graduate level lab doing computer vision and I am seeing what the grad students are doing wrong.

What I'm trying to get at is sometimes what seems like an advantage can be a (minor) disadvantage. Keep that in mind.

So, you're bored? Are you involved in clubs? Idk MST but I'd be willing to bet they have a handful of great programs for students (Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition was big in Michigan).

Have you approached any faculty about research they're doing? Maybe you could get involved there.

Heck, get a group of friends together and prep for next year's Sparkfun AVC.


If you're bored in college it's your own $@#$@#$@#$@# fault. It's not a disadvantage of being an alumni, it's just a reality of not having every minute of your life scheduled and having to be responsible for your own life. Sounds like your team/school is doing a pretty mediocre job of preparing folks for this reality.

[connor.worley]

Try taking some non engineering classes in an area you know nothing about. I actually look forward to those the most.

[AdamHeard]

If you are incapable of finding activities to be involved in, and other ways to continue your own education on your own (separate from class) you simply will never be successful.

Companies don't want engineers that are unable to be self starters. If you don't want to work for a company, your personal business won't be successful for the same reasons.

[JamesCH95]

If you are "too far ahead of your peers" then it is time to find different peers (at least academically). There is ALWAYS someone out there who knows something you don't in your area of expertise.

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

If you're bored in college it's your own $@#$@#$@#$@# fault.

I don't entirely disagree with the message, but is this really a constructive way of putting it?

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Oblarg

I don't entirely disagree with the message, but is this really a constructive way of putting it?

Some people need the 2x4.

[pmangels17]

As a freshman myself at Notre Dame, I'm jealous, I wish I was ahead of the class all the time. But more importantly, you should branch out and do something new! I'm in the Notre Dame Marching Band. We have more engineers than any other major (>30%) and we do zero engineering at band, we just play music, have a good time, and do something that a lot of people enjoy.

Obviously band isn't for everyone, but try something completely out of your comfort zone or out of your usual skillset. I'm glad I did, it's a fantastic break from what is usually a day full of quite difficult classes and it's the single coolest thing I've been a part of in my life. All I'm saying is, there is always an opportunity to fall in love with something new, you just have to go for it. (And by it, I mean something not directly related to robotics or at the very least you're particular strongsuit in robotics)

[Michael Hill]

Also, I'll go out on a limb and suggest NOT doing robotics in college. Branch out and find something new for a while like Formula SAE (if your school has it), Ribe Goldberg, or even non-STEM organizations. College is a time where you can really grow as a person. You finally have an opportunity to be out on your own without supervision. Looking back after being out of college for a few years now, I really wish I made better use of my time in college...as in making more friends, getting into a bit more trouble (but not too much of course), etc. You will likely never be surrounded with such a variety of types of people again, so take advantage of it. I currently work in an office full of introverted engineers. I sure miss the variety of people.

[AlecMataloni]

Do I see a first semester freshman complaining about how engineering school isn't challenging? That's precious!

[MaxMax161]

The only excuse for being bored is incompetence or laziness. Smart, motivated people find things to do and problems to solve. It's a contradiction for both these statements to be true:

Originally Posted by faust1706

(I'm) Bored out of my mind

Originally Posted by faust1706

I am too far ahead of my peers.

If none of this makes sense I'd suggest the solution Ether proposed.

Keep that in mind. :-P

[Chadfrom308]

I know how you feel sometimes. It's not a bad thing, but sometimes challenges are too easy. I joined the Formula SAE team, which is a lot like robotics in many ways, but different and more difficult in a good way. I am sure your school has one, I would check it out. And since I am on Formula SAE, I get to use the machine shop for 'Formula SAE things only'

Anyways, story time.

We had to create a Lego NXT robot in our engineering 100 class, and that was fun, but also wayy to easy. We had to make one that followed a line (line sensor and a variant of a P-loop), pick up a ball, and put in in a bucket.

I ended up throwing away all the code, and used PID loops on both the drivetrain and the arm. I ended up doing all the work on the robot, but I didn't mind the least bit. And needless to say, our (my) robot was the best by far

And you can tell the FIRST robotics kids from the other (as one of the programmers on my team says) plebs (plebeians). The FIRST kids excel at pretty much everything.

[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by Chadfrom308

I know how you feel sometimes. It's not a bad thing, but sometimes challenges are too easy. I joined the Formula SAE team, which is a lot like robotics in many ways, but different and more difficult in a good way. I am sure your school has one, I would check it out. And since I am on Formula SAE, I get to use the machine shop for 'Formula SAE things only'

Anyways, story time.

We had to create a Lego NXT robot in our engineering 100 class, and that was fun, but also wayy to easy. We had to make one that followed a line (line sensor and a variant of a P-loop), pick up a ball, and put in in a bucket.

I ended up throwing away all the code, and used PID loops on both the drivetrain and the arm. I ended up doing all the work on the robot, but I didn't mind the least bit. And needless to say, our (my) robot was the best by far

And you can tell the FIRST robotics kids from the other (as one of the programmers on my team says) plebs (plebeians). The FIRST kids excel at pretty much everything.

In our MechE "100" class we had to do similar. Our robot had to follow a line on non-flat terrain, pick up some small PVC pipes, carry them through a tight tunnel, and dump them off. Our group (randomly assigned of course) consisted of entirely FRC and FTC alum by chance. We were given something like the last 5 weeks of the semester to build the robot (2x1hr classes per week). We finished on day 2, got our 100, and were done for the semester.

[EricH]

Seeing as we're going there... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG9tZ9O60dA

For reference, the rest of the competition was somewhat larger and took somewhat longer (the ones that didn't have to be picked up mid-run or nudged back on-course). I'm not aware of any other FIRSTers in the class, though. (The team I was on had one ME, one EE, and one computer engineer/computer scientist.)