What's in a name? New Championship Divisions

[BBray_T1296]

von Braun Division

I mean,



pretty great legacy



.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

Bring back Watt.

I'm totally with you. James Watt's epitaph in Westminster Abbey really sums up FIRST for me.

Not to perpetuate a name which must endure while the peaceful arts flourish, but to shew that mankind have learned to know those who best deserve their gratitude. The King, His Ministers, and many of the Nobles and Commoners of the Realm raised this monument to JAMES WATT who, directing the force of an original Genius, early exercised in philosophic research, to the improvement of the Steam Engine, enlarged the resources of his Country, increased the power of Man, and rose to an eminent place among the most illustrious followers of science and the real benefactors of the World. Born at Greenock MDCCXXXVI Died at Heathfield in Staffordshire MDCCCXIX.

I think Henry Maudslay, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel also deserve spots at the table.

It's always struck me as a little odd that while FRC is practically mostly engineering, our fields were named after people who were more famous for their science than their engineering. Maybe that's a good thing though.

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296

von Braun Division

Basically the only famous pure "engineer" I can think of off the top of my head. Unfortunately, it would never happen for political reasons. Too bad, he's probably one of my biggest personal inspirations.

Originally Posted by MooreteP

Alan Turing,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
A Turing machine is a hypothetical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a computer.
He could be our Michael Sam?

This is a great suggestion. He fulfills the minority requirement (as a homosexual), and was hugely influential to cryptography, mathematics, physics, and engineering.

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Oppenheimer - Because being on the cover of TIME (http://content.time.com/time/covers/...481108,00.html) and LIFE (http://oldlifemagazines.com/october-...zine-2058.html) magazines isn't pretty common among scientists.

Agreed, Oppenheimer would be a great guy to honor, although again political issues might come in the way. Personally, van Neumann was my favorite Martian though...

[wasayanwer97]

I'd really like to some of the following:

Male-
Euler, Darwin, Tesla, Salk, Freud, Goddard, Fermi, Seaborg

Female-
Carson, Hopper, Franklin, Meitner

[hiyou102]

I would live to see James Clerk Maxwell given that electricity and electronics are a huge part of what we do. Alan Turing would be a big one since not nearly enough people know who he is or his contributions to computing.

[cadandcookies]

Updated short list (for me):

Grace Hopper (this is a microsecond),
GW Carver (Peanuts!),
Nikola Tesla (Electrocity, pretty cool dude),
Richard Feynmann (because I just generally love that guy),
Lise Meitner (Because she's flipping awesome).

[dodar]

I just thought of another female that could be considered and am kind of surprised she hasnt been mentiond yet, Sally Ride.

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296

von Braun Division

I mean,

pretty great legacy



.

I'm sure FIRST would love to name a division after a Nazi SS officer who used enslaved concentration camp internees as labor for a project designed to kill people. I hope you're joking when you say he has a great legacy.

http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/mittel.html

[T^2]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

I'm sure FIRST would love to name a division after a Nazi SS officer who used enslaved concentration camp internees as labor for a project designed to kill people. I hope you're joking when you say he has a great legacy.

http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/mittel.html

He also developed the V-2 rocket, the forerunner of all modern rockets. Under him, the Nazis were the first to have the capability to reach outer space. Later, he was in charge of the NASA team that created the Saturn V rocket. He was the progenitor of rocket science. Compare to Newton, who executed counterfeiters, or Archimedes, who developed a number of pretty brutal war machines. History is written by the victors, right?

[Johnnybukkel]

Tesla please. Tesla is the best. Even though he might have been a tad crazy.

[TheMadCADer]

There are plenty more names than there will be fields. The names should be put on a rotation year to year.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by T^2

He also developed the V-2 rocket, the forerunner of all modern rockets. Under him, the Nazis were the first to have the capability to reach outer space. Later, he was in charge of the NASA team that created the Saturn V rocket. He was the progenitor of rocket science. Compare to Newton, who executed counterfeiters, or Archimedes, who developed a number of pretty brutal war machines. History is written by the victors, right?

"'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun."

Whatever you make of his motivations, the chances of FIRST naming a field after von Braun are essentially zero.

[Akash Rastogi]

Leibniz!!!

...Tesla, Grace, Faraday, Pascal, Hawking, and Feynman are my other favorites. Oppenheimer and von Braun probably won't happen

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296

von Braun Division

I mean, pretty great legacy.

Ummmm...
I think we should just go with von Braun's predecessor who is far less controversial.

Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard

[pfreivald]

How is it possible that we've talked women and mathematicians but haven't said Emmy Noether?

http://xkcd.com/896/