Starting your own FIRST College Program (FIRST Conference)

[Michael Corsetto]

Nica, this sounds fantastic! Definitely high on my priority list of seminars to attend!

I gave a similar presentation to many of the UC Davis College of Enginering students and faculty last spring. The presentation was targeted towards the College of Engineering, so I spend quite a bit of time going over the basics of FIRST before diving into areas of potential partnership. A recorded video of the presentation can be found here:
Synergy in Education: FIRST Robotics Program

Presentation Abstract:

How might a local Davis high school Robotics competition team and the UC Davis College of Engineering (CoE) collaborate to their mutual benefit? Plus, special guests from the Davis FIRST robotics team.

The FIRST Robotics Competition involves teams of high school students from around the world, and offers a variety of technical challenges in meeting the objectives of the competition. There are a number of opportunities for the UC Davis community to interact with and support the local team, and these will be described, along with examples of existing interactions happening for other college-town teams. As host of the FIRST regional competition each year, UC Davis also has a unique opportunity to actively recruit engineering-minded high school students from across California to CoE during that competition. Following the presentation, we hope to have an interactive discussion among the audience, the speaker, and the special guests.