Starting your own FIRST College Program (FIRST Conference)

This is AWESOME! I won't be able to make championships this year, but I'd be more than happy to help out with this if you need people.

It would be the best thing ever to get FIRST at a college level. Not only would it make a great experience for college students, but also push college students to mentor FRC/FTC/FLL teams. Based on the college people I've talked to, after High School they got out of FIRST, albeit the occasional event volunteer or rare time to mentor a team. A FIRST event at the college level will keep these students involved.

With FRC we're trying to make robotics the "new cool" amongst high schoolers. Let's try to make tens of thousands of people gather around a college stadium to watch robotics the same way people will travel with their alma mater's football team to watch one of their games.

Plus, we've seen the benefits in High School students. Just imagine the benefits a FIRST game at a college-level will have for the engineers/NES (Non-Engineering Students) of the future.

[EricH]

Um... Andrew, I think Nica's referring to something like Purdue FIRST or other collegiate organizations that support FRC teams. Not a college-level competition (of which there are already two, not counting the many non-FIRST-related competitions).

[sand500]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

It would be the best thing ever to get FIRST at a college level. Not only would it make a great experience for college students, but also push college students to mentor FRC/FTC/FLL teams. Based on the college people I've talked to, after High School they got out of FIRST, albeit the occasional event volunteer or rare time to mentor a team. A FIRST event at the college level will keep these students involved.

With FRC we're trying to make robotics the "new cool" amongst high schoolers. Let's try to make tens of thousands of people gather around a college stadium to watch robotics the same way people will travel with their alma mater's football team to watch one of their games.

Plus, we've seen the benefits in High School students. Just imagine the benefits a FIRST game at a college-level will have for the engineers/NES (Non-Engineering Students) of the future.

I agree, having college students who were on a FIRST team mentor a local team would be amazing. Especially if there are any rookie teams, the student could mentor on behalf of the college. But a FIRST program to keep all the college students connected would be awesome. College is all about actually learning engineering on a professional scale. Having a competition on the scale of FRC would be perfect. But FIRST has a lot of support because their goal is to intrest people in engineering. At college, people are pretty much know if they want to do engineering or not.

[goldenglove002]

Any chance that this will be recorded and posted online for those of us who are stuck in classes? I'm working with a few others at Virginia Tech to get something started out here, and we'd love to get some knowledge from an experienced group.

[pwnageNick]

So this is a little unclear, but is this about setting up college competition robotics teams or setting up a group that helps mentor FRC teams? While both are important they're different and its tough to tell from the description which one it is.

-Nick

[Nica F.]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

So this is a little unclear, but is this about setting up college competition robotics teams or setting up a group that helps mentor FRC teams? While both are important they're different and its tough to tell from the description which one it is.

-Nick

Thank you for asking, I have forgotten that College Level Robotics is something gaining a lot of momentum and can be confused with College mentorship programs.

EricH was right, and I have gone ahead and added onto the description.
Here is what was added:

The College/University FIRST Programs we will be presenting on aren't for "College Level" Robotics Competitions, but rather to start a FIRST program for the University to help start teams(FRC,FTC,FLL) , support local teams in any way they can (through mentorship, sponsorship, or facilities), or hosting a regional at said university/college.

@goldenglove002

Any chance that this will be recorded and posted online for those of us who are stuck in classes? I'm working with a few others at Virginia Tech to get something started out here, and we'd love to get some knowledge from an experienced group.

I will look into getting it recorded, but if you are interested in the information and a video is not recorded, at the very least we will be updating our official webpage and will be posting the presentation that was given during the conference. I would look out for the link to it on ChiefDelphi in the near future.