Should there be a new division in FIRST?

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

Why stop at college?

Why stop at all?

We could just keep this robotics thing escalating until we end up like the Tralfamadorians.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Briansmithtown

I was thinking, what if there was a college level robotics compeition ran by first?

It could be called like FCL (First College Level). It would be more advanced the FRC, and it will also help college students in engineering classes. It would have a different game then FRC, where you would have to do a harder task. Any suggestions or comments?

A few years ago they did a College pilot. I was working so I didn't get to see it in action but it had flying robots involved (before drones were available). I think a handful of colleges tried it out. It didn't seem to expand more from there.

[Loose Screw]

If you really want to continue FIRST into college, mentor or even coach a team. I went from being build captain/driver to mentor, and that is a very challenging transition. Now I coach the build portion of FTC on one of my school's FTC teams, the Loose Screws. If you want something more challenging than FRC but still FIRST, you should try mentoring/coaching.

[GeeTwo]

Another college-level engineering challenge I learned about when Gixxy was shopping for colleges:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EcoCARhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EcoCAR

Also, did you know that the FRC actually is a "scaled down" version of a class Woodie Flowers' taught at MIT?

[tindleroot]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't VEX have a college level robotics competition?

[protoserge]

Don't forget about the University Rover Challenge. http://urc.marssociety.org

[Bongle]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

Why stop at college? A corporate level would be amazing to watch as well. No money cap, no bagging...We could get to see how well Honda's robotics division could face off against Google's acquired Boston Dynamics...Companies have big egos and like to show how much better they are than their competition.

www.formula1.com - Build engines and chassis that go as fast as possible, with fairly game-changing rule changes every 4-5 years. Budgets in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars.
www.fiawec.com - Build engines and chassis that go fast and last a long time. WEC engineering and tech development is actually _extraordinarily_ interesting these days, with their fairly wide-open engine/powertrain-development rules.

The main constraint on "corporate-level" competitions are:
-They need to be self-funded: No shareholder will ever approve of a company spending their best and brightest's time on something that doesn't have a return to the company. In the case of racing, that return is advertisement and tech development.
-It needs to be interesting to the public: This falls out of the self-funding requirement - you need to be able to attract spectators, which means that you're limited to things that are a spectacle (racing, fighting robots, etc). There is a whole universe of things that are fascinating engineering challenges that wouldn't be viable as a high-budget adult-level competition because there'd be no source of prize money/competition funds from sponsors/advertisers/spectators.
-It needs to not expose proprietary tech: If you're competing with a product that you may someday put out to market, you don't want it publicly exposed until it's ready. Imagine if Simbotics Inc. or RoboWranglers LLC wanted to make a tote-organizing robot for public sale in 2016: They wouldn't want to have us all able to copy it now.

[jvriezen]

Through high school and FRC many of you have been building robots. Once you get settled into college (or for some maybe after college-- priorities!), you should strongly consider giving back by spending your time 'building' high school kids (or younger) who are building robots. I've never had the chance to participate in FRC as a student, but my best memories mentoring FIRST are not about the best robots I've helped build, the best memories are about the kid's futures I've help build.

[JesseK]

Best Business Plan Ever:

Start a collegiate level. Never do a 2001 or 2015 type of game - more like 2012-2014, ever year, period. Don't pay the participants. Get TV deals and endorsements. Fold that money back into the robotics programs.

It'll be a great competition. That is, if anyone even shows up to try to beat Georgia Tech . Nanotech FTW.

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Best Business Plan Ever:

Start a collegiate level. Never do a 2001 or 2015 type of game - more like 2012-2014, ever year, period. Don't pay the participants. Get TV deals and endorsements. Fold that money back into the robotics programs.

It'll be a great competition. That is, if anyone even shows up to try to beat Georgia Tech . Nanotech FTW.

Challenge accepted.

But really. At least in my case and obviously a lot of your cases. We do volunteer, and mentor FIRST teams. I honestly think I won't ever be able to stop enjoying working with FRC teams.

I'm just saying. FIRST does a lot of things with their competitions you won't find anywhere else. Vex U is close I suppose but I personally like the freedom of parts FRC and FTC has a lot more.

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by Briansmithtown

For me, it's hard leaving the FIRST community as a student, especially since I have been doing this since I was in 7th grade (2009). You get a feeling that you kinda lost something that was big in your life, and you start becoming less involved because, obviously, it's for the kids. But it is hard watching it knowing you really can't be involved like you use to be.

You don't need to leave the FIRST community--you can mentor in college. You can be just as involved, just with a different purpose. It's really quite satisfying. My son made the transition quite readily. He's mentoring now with his old team, but he'll mentor another team next year (I now open the bidding for a one of the San Jose teams for his services.... )

[techhelpbb]

Personally just prefer to extend FIRST into MakerSpaces.
As a friendly competition not armed robot combat.

Why limit it to colleges?

Besides MakerSpaces completely remove the limitations on what the community can do with the tools.
Build FIRST robots.
Build wall clocks.
What's the difference as long as you are learning something and being constructive?

Take for example: NextFAB
http://www.nextfab.com/about/history

"Dr. Malone aspires to reinvigorate American manufacturing by putting the latest computer-aided design and advanced manufacturing technologies in the hands of innovative individuals and organizations, with the training, support, and friendly expert consultants necessary to help turn ideas into products, and products into businesses."

Seems a compatible goal.
Learn how to build the robot.
Learn how to use the shop.
Learn much more than building a robot (sounds familiar).

Imagine the value of FIRST if you continued to have access to what you used to be build that robot?

[Briansmithtown]

We can call it FCC, but we have to make sure the type of language we use

[Xavbro]

Originally Posted by tindleroot

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't VEX have a college level robotics competition?

Correct. It's called VEX U. I've been apart of it for the last two years and while it isn't exactly like FRC, it's pretty close. It's a place to practice and apply what engineering skills you learn in the classroom. Some universities are actually using VEX materials to teach some basic concepts so why not use the extra parts and start a VEX U team? It's slowly growing but it does have a lot of support.

It's been great for me since I mentor an FRC team that does VEX. We're able to work together and learn from one another.

[chrisfl]

Maybe something with larger projects where college students have to work with students from all different studies in order to excel(ie. aerospace engineers, civil engineers, and maybe even more science and arts students). That would be beneficial for preparing students to work in diverse teams.