FIRST 50 years ago / 50 years from now.

[tjf]

I was talking to some of 1257's students about science fiction literature and thought that, FIRST is a type of science fiction. 50 years ago this type of thing could only have been fiction and yet it is. If you were to explain to someone in 1966, 3 years before the moon landing, that teenagers would have the capability do build machines complicated as the work done at NASA, with some equation overlap?

"Teenagers building complicated machinations to compete objectively against others of their kind for a coveted globally-recognized title, as their teams sponsors, each with their own goals and motivations watch from the sidelines. Who shall prevail?"

And on the other side is a question. Where do you think FIRST (and FRC specifically) will be in 50 years? Every home and school? Spanning the solar system? Objectively or wildly fantasy, where will FIRST and Competitive Robotics be?

[bobbysq]

Hover game.

[TheBoulderite]

50 years from now, the FRC will still be waiting and hoping for a water game. That's my prediction.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by TheBoulderite

50 years from now, the FRC will still be waiting and hoping for a water game. That's my prediction.

I hope FIRST never does a water game. The meme is a part of FIRST; don't they dare take that away from us.

[Aboudy Dairi]

Originally Posted by dodar

I hope FIRST never does a water game. The meme is a part of FIRST; don't they dare take that away from us.

It would be like Leo winning an oscar all over again

[Lil' Lavery]

I hope that 50 years from now, FIRST is no longer required.

[ASD20]

Originally Posted by tjf

And on the other side is a question. Where do you think FIRST (and FRC specifically) will be in 50 years? Every home and school? Spanning the solar system? Objectively or wildly fantasy, where will FIRST and Competitive Robotics be?

I don't think FRC will ever be in every school. FTC/VEX/FLL probably, but FRC is just not scalable to that size.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

I hope that 50 years from now, FIRST is no longer required.

In fifty years we can replay Lunacy.

On the Moon.

[FrankJ]

The Google sponsored teams will be totally AI. CD will be discussing the merits of human only competitions to get humans back in STEM.

The mentor vs student built robots discussion will expand to mentor vs student vs robot built robots.

On a more serious note, hopefully the need for programs to encourage women to enter STEM fields will be a foreign concept.

[Whatever]

Team 31416 will have a really fun PI pun for their team name.

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by Whatever

Team 31416 will have a really fun PI pun for their team name.

Hopefully we will have gone base 16 by then and have 6E23.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

Hopefully we will have gone base 16 by then and have 6E23.

Avogadrobots will become the new standard that teams will set themselves to.

[mr.roboto2826]

In 50 years hopefully we have batteries that last more than 2 minutes! Imagine all the possibilities! (que transformers capability)

[wajirock]

Originally Posted by mr.roboto2826

In 50 years hopefully we have batteries that last more than 2 minutes! Imagine all the possibilities! (que transformers capability)

I'd rather have batteries that don't weigh 14 pounds, but long lasting batteries would be nice. I can only imagine what other types of cool technology FRC students will be able to use 50 years from now.

[marshall]

I predict that in 50 years there will no longer be a bag day.

In all seriousness, I think programming is going to get a lot easier in the next 5-10 years, manufacturing will get easier in the next 10-15, and beyond that, I'm not sure.

While it might sound bleak, I hope that in 50 years FIRST is no longer necessary and doesn't exist because we as a society have integrated these ideas of valuing science, technology, math, and engineering into our educational system in a more fundamental way and we are preparing students to become professionals who take pride in their work, collaborate across boundaries, and work to raise the level for everyone in the world.

A boy can hope can't he?