What Is the best FIRST state.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by JosephM

*brain fart*Ooopsss, should have known better, I'm wearing their shirt now! Sorry ed! *brain fart*

woooo. Somebody open a window. WHOA!

[AmyPrib]

Unfortunately I do not think that you can judge the best state by the Chairman's Award winners. Reason I say this is cuz different judges, different regionals, different things they look for. While it is a prestigious award, I don't necessarily think it's a good parameter to look at.
But in saying that, I don't know what exactly are the good parameters to base the BEST state out there... perhaps there needs to be more to the question of which state is best for FIRST to give basis for an answer.

But, I'll go ahead and agree with IN for all the previous reasons mentioned..
Indiana is looking at potentially 6-7 new rookie teams next year. That's pretty awesome. BMR was awesome rookie regional, only to become more awesome next year. IRI is always awesome. Team 71 has a record for championship wins....45 has been around since the beginning.. And we just have a huge group of awesome teams, who always come together and support each other when in need.
I'm surprised there aren't more states chiming in here!!!

[Elgin Clock]

OK, not even going to comment on my other post, cause apparently no one found it amusing..

BUT - All states that have FIRST teams in them are the coolest..

Do we have all 50 yet?

Canadian Provinces, you rock too for bringing FIRST to an international audience first.

And countries, Brazil, and UK. w00t

[Amanda Morrison]

Recently doing the statistics page for the new IndianaFIRST website, I found out that Indiana was even more successful than I thought.

15 Regional Wins
13 Regional Finalists
(28 robots have been in regional finals, total)
8 Championship Division Finalists
8 Rookie All-Star Awards
7 Xerox Creativity Awards
7 KPC&B Entrepreneurship Awards
7 Leadership in Control (11 if you add the Innovation in Control Award)
7 Judges' Awards
6 GM Industrial Design Awards
5 Regional Chairman's Awards
5 National Championships
4 Woodie Flowers Award Winners (Bill Beatty, Andy Baker, Darrell Noble, Scott Ritchie)
4 Unsung FIRST Heroes Awards (Scott & Libby Ritchie, Chris Fultz, Steve Florence)

... and the list goes on and on. Here's the breakdown of the 158 awards (not including UFH) that have been won by Indiana teams:

2005: 36
2004: 25
2003: 23
2002: 13
2001: 28
2000: 8
1999: 7
1998: 7
1997: 5
1996: 1
1995: 1

I don't have a personal vote on this issue, but I thought the stats were interesting. All that information is from FIRST's website. I'd like to see Michigan's match up, but I don't have the patience (I barely did Indiana while staying sane). Anyone up for it?

/edit: It's also been brought to my attention that I should clarify. This only had included current Indiana teams. I have now included the awards of the now-defunct teams 535 and 24. There were also former teams 377, 472, and 1475 that never had awards.

I <3 corn, driving in circles, and tattooing pigs,
Amanda Morrison

[Andy A.]

Wait a minute-

which state is kickoff held in?
Which state is home to FIRST?
Which state is home to Deans hair?
Which state had a big face made out of rock that fell down and is still on all the license plates??

Thats right.

New Hampshire.

-Andy A.

[Anne George]

I second New Hampshire...
really where would FIRST be without Dean? thats right nowhere...so therefore, the home of FIRST Place, Dean Kamen, and license plates with landmarks that arent there anymore would have to win.

[Cory]

I was bored, so I made a list of California's accomplishments:

5 National Champions
2 National Finalists
6 National Division Champions
2 National Division Finalists
2 National Chairmans Awards
1 National Engineering Inspiration Award
1 National Rookie Inspiration Award
2 National Number One Seed Awards
2 National Rookie All Stars
5 National Judges Awards
1 National Leadership in Control Award
1 National Autodesk Award for Excellence in Engineering
40 Regional Championships
45 Regional Finalist Awards
9 Regional Chairmans Awards
13 Regional Engineering Inspiration Awards
5 Regional Woodie Flowers Award (Steve Kyramarios, Ted Shinta, Matt Driggs, LeRoy Nelson, Chris Curry)
12 Regional Number One Seed Awards
24 Regional Rookie All Star Awards
11 Regional Xerox Creativity Awards
16 Regional Leadership in Control Awards
10 Regional Motorola Quality Award
26 Regional Judges Awards
19 Regional Sportsmanship Awards
11 Regional Driving Tomorrow’s Technology Awards
11 Regional General Motors Industrial Design Awardss
7 Regional Imagery Awards
8 Regional Entrepreneurship Awards
10 Regional Team Spirit Awards
5 UFH Honorees (Travis Covington, Joe Ross, Wendy Wooten, Ken Leung, Jason Morrella)

That adds up to 337 awards won by CA teams, since the inception of the first team in 1995

[Amanda Morrison]

Originally Posted by Cory

I was bored, so I made a list of California's accomplishments:

That adds up to 337 awards won by CA teams, since the inception of the first team in 1995

Even if you say that the 105 teams in existence now are the only teams in California's history, that's approx. 3.2 awards per team.

Indiana, with 21 teams this year (25 total in history), with 149 awards (not counting those won by defunct teams) is approx. 7 awards per team.

Shall we also take landmass into account?

[Lisa Perez]

Where was all the awards information found? I want to make a list of stats for Michigan I'll be needing it for this year's sponsorship presentation, anyhow

[Amanda Morrison]

All the information was taken from the US map on the FIRST website. I'd like to see how many other states rank up. NY, MI, FL, etc.

[Lisa Perez]

Oh, of course *smacks self in head*... Thanks. Michigan will be up sometime early tonight

[Jessica Boucher]

I dont know...out of the 16 people who voiced an opinion about the "best FIRST state", 81% voted for the state/province listed in their personal location.

There's no real answer here. Run all the stats you want, but the point is that there is no best FIRST state. They can not be compared against eachother since there is no equal playing field for them to be compared upon: land mass, industry makeup, taxes/gov't funding, even quality of life factor in. So, until we can agree on a metric to define the point of this post, there's just no way to answer this.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Amanda Morrison

Even if you say that the 105 teams in existence now are the only teams in California's history, that's approx. 3.2 awards per team.

Indiana, with 21 teams this year (25 total in history), with 149 awards (not counting those won by defunct teams) is approx. 7 awards per team.

Shall we also take landmass into account?

I didn't make a single statement about the data, I only presented the data (For the record, I think IN and MI are both ahead of CA)

Originally Posted by Amanda Morrison

All the information was taken from the US map on the FIRST website. I'd like to see how many other states rank up. NY, MI, FL, etc.

Also, for a state with a ton of teams like CA, it was a heck of a lot easier for me to use www.archive.org to look at the FIRST site each year and find awards, rather than going through each team.

CA teams were mostly confined to west coast regionals though, so I didn't have to check every single event page.

[Lisa Perez]

Here are the stats for Michigan, subject to editing (seeing that I just copied and pasted each team's data into Word, and did a Find function for each of the awards). Must double-check for discrepancies.

7 National Championships
8 Championship Division Finalists
12 Regional Chairman's Awards
62 Regional Winners
33 Regional Finalists
26 Rookie All-Star Awards
23 Xerox Creativity Awards
0 KPC&B Entrepreneurship Awards
22 Leadership in Control/Innovation in Control Award
42 Judges' Awards
16 GM Industrial Design Awards
19 Delphi's Driving Tomorrow's Technology Awards
29 Motorola Quality Awards
14 Engineering Inspiration Awards
5 Woodie Flowers Award Winners
6 UFH Honorees

I still stand by my statement that I think there are no "best" states, though.

[Chief Samwize]

Originally Posted by Lisa Perez

Here are the stats for Michigan, subject to editing (seeing that I just copied and pasted each team's data into Word, and did a Find function for each of the awards). Must double-check for discrepancies.

7 National Championships
8 Championship Division Finalists
12 Regional Chairman's Awards
62 Regional Winners
33 Regional Finalists
26 Rookie All-Star Awards
23 Xerox Creativity Awards
0 KPC&B Entrepreneurship Awards
22 Leadership in Control/Innovation in Control Award
42 Judges' Awards
16 GM Industrial Design Awards
19 Delphi's Driving Tomorrow's Technology Awards
29 Motorola Quality Awards
14 Engineering Inspiration Awards
5 Woodie Flowers Award Winners
6 UFH Honorees

I still stand by my statement that I think there are no "best" states, though.

you also forgot MICHIGAN (capital for infancies) has two Chairman Award winners