Dealing With FIRST Withdrawal Symptoms?

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Gray Adams

http://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries/
http://www.uscrpl.com/index.php

Racecars and rockets.

Originally Posted by apalrd

+1 for Racecars.

I also do the Snowmobiles http://students.sae.org/competitions/snowmobile/, working on engine controls software/hardware for both.

I'm always amazed how many people I know through FIRST connections, and how often they pop up now.

+1 to all of this.

FRC is very good for HS level students, but a good SAE challenge is a couple steps of intensity above FRC in every way and is better suited to a college student's abilities and expectations. They are good ways to develop professional skills and relationships in a broader range of fields.

For example: in Formula SAE you will have to defend design decisions to a group of judges during the design review; the cost report documents the entire build of a car, down to every nut and bolt, and you have to defend cost assessments to another judge; then, instead of driving a robot for a sum total of 20-40 minutes 2 minutes at a time, you and your co-drivers have to each drive an honest-to-goodness race car for up to 30 minutes at a time.

TL;DR

Do an SAE or other professional organization challenge (AIChE Chem-E car, IEEE competitions, concrete canoe, steel bridge building, etc) that's more suited to your developing skill level and forces you out of your comfort zone. I did, and I am a much more capable engineer for it.