Starting your own FIRST College Program (FIRST Conference)

[wendymom]

This sounds fantastic. We have been working on trying to get the Florida Colleges to offer an engineering elective called FIRST Robotics. I know some students at Purdue get college credit for mentoring. I need specifics on what the curicculum looks like. Will I be able to get something like that at this conference?

[Jacob Paikoff]

We're looking into getting something similar started at NC State. Too bad I'll be in class during this presentation and won't get to St. Louis til later that afternoon.

I second the request to record the presentation. Also will you be around Champs after the presentation cause if I can I would like to pick your brain to get some tips for our program.

Thanks for doing this.

[pwnageNick]

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.

Thanks for the clarification. The title was the most confusing part. Any way it can be re-worded? Or is it too late to change it? Just a suggestion.

-Nick

[Nica F.]

Originally Posted by pwnageNick

Thanks for the clarification. The title was the most confusing part. Any way it can be re-worded? Or is it too late to change it? Just a suggestion.

-Nick

The title "Starting your own FIRST College Program" or "FIRST for Life" describes the conference just fine. Every FIRST College Program is run differently and contributes to FIRST in different ways and defining it further would close out other groups and possibilities.

As for the confusion with a competitive college level FIRST competition, I would say the addition of "competition" to the title such as in "FIRST Robotics College Competition" would be the key for you distinguishing between the two.

Thanks for the suggestion, but usually right under the Title is a description that would clarify any confusion.

[JustinRueb1891]

I think this is a great idea! If it helps colleges decide to work with FIRST, one of the reasons I chose RIT over a couple of other schools is that they work with FRC teams in their area. I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to work with my team anymore, but RIT's FIRST program has me excited to be able to mentor a team.

[Leeebowitz]

Please, please, PLEASE record this! I'm a graduating senior and this sounds amazing, but unfortunately I have a band concert Thursday night and won't be able to make it to CMP until Friday.

[Christopher149]

I just want to say that Michigan Technological University has had a program supporting the local teams with mentors for about 8 years.

[Nica F.]

If a method of recording the conference does not become available by the time we travel to the event, we will be recording the presentation afterwards back at Purdue and will be posting it as soon as we can.

As for syllabus/student handbook/additional class information, it can be found directly from our website here:

http://www.purduefirst.org/me297-course-page/

Also, if you find yourself at the Championship and are unable to attend the conference, the presenters of the conference as well as other Purdue FIRST advisers and students will be manning the Purdue University booth on Scholarship row.

And as always, I am always available to answer any questions via PM or email.

[Nica F.]

Originally Posted by wendymom

This sounds fantastic. We have been working on trying to get the Florida Colleges to offer an engineering elective called FIRST Robotics. I know some students at Purdue get college credit for mentoring. I need specifics on what the curicculum looks like. Will I be able to get something like that at this conference?

Hi Wendy! I remember talking to you about this a couple years back. Purdue students do get 2 technical elective credits per semester for our FIRST class. A part of the seminar will be us talking about our class structure, but if there is additional information you would like, i.e. copy of our syllabus I will gladly email that to you, just PM me your contact information.

Also, here is a link to our conference page with some of our previous college FIRST program conferences:
http://www.purduefirst.org/college-c...s-conferences/
The outlines, notes, and presentations are all available there and could be helpful with breakdowns of other colleges' programs as well.

@Jacob:

I second the request to record the presentation. Also will you be around Champs after the presentation cause if I can I would like to pick your brain to get some tips for our program.

It is on my to do list to try to get someone to provide a video recorder for the conference, I will try my best to make it happen! I am the organizer of this conference and have been a presenter in years past, but unfortunately I have had to last minute back out of travel for championships. If you would like to contact me regarding College FIRST Programs, PM me and I can give you my email or phone.