What Is the best FIRST state.

Don't forget that Indiana has pulled this off with 1/5th as many teams as Michigan has...

[Joe Ross]

If we look at it by national championships, Michigan wins, followed by Indiana and California.

Michigan - 8.5
California - 5
Indiana - 5
Ohio - 2.5
Connecticut - 2
Massachusetts - 2
New Jersey - 1
Delaware - 1
Illinois - 1
New York - 1
Texas - 1

If you look at it by alliance captains (and pre '99 champions), Indiana is the winner, followed by California then Connecticut. Note that a Michigan team has never been the alliance captain of the national championship alliance.

Indiana - 4
California - 3
Connecticut - 2
Illinois - 1
Massachusetts - 1
New York - 1
Ohio - 1
Texas - 1

Needless to say, I'd say Indiana or Michigan can easily claim to be the best, based on national championships, with California coming in 3rd.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

I am gonna give a few more reasons for Indiana, specific to opportunities. I'm not saying other states don't have these, I'm just saying they're amazingly plentiful in Indiana.

1) Spectacular rookie regional, growing more next year
This regional was organized by a team of college students and professors and highschool teachers, not by a company. It was tailored to students' interests and needs and had multiple socials and immense academic opportunities. Huge points for fun, fairness, and organization.

2) Science is a priority
Every state has great job availibility, but go talk to some students doing internships in Indiana. There are so many of them out there, and there are many many opporunities for highschool and college students. Indiana is not just some farm state.

3) Growth of teams
To my knowledge there is not yet outsourcing going on with Indiana teams. Why is that? Because so many companies want to see good students stay in state, and help in the future. There are many many upcoming teams from Indiana, so just you watch!

I live here. We give good hugs.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

111 is from Illinios.

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

[Ali Ahmed]

Well if you look at Chairman Award winners by state it goes something like this:

Michigan-2 (67,47)
California-2 (22,254)
Ohio-2 (120,144)
Pennsylvania-1 (103)
Connecticut-1 (175)
Arkansas-1 (16)
Massachusetts-1 (23)
New Hampshire-1 (151)
New York-1 (191)

Please correct me if any of these are wrong. It still doesn't say the best state, I'm just giving some info.

[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.

[Karthik]

Although not as publicized as Michigan, Indiana and Calfornia, we have something very special going on up here in Ontario. The growth as been unprecidented, take a look at the number of teams each season.

2001: 2
2002: 24
2003: 39
2004: 62

Here are the Ontario award stats

12 Regional Wins
11 Regional Finalists
(18 robots have been in regional finals, total)
0 Championship Division Finalists
11 Rookie All-Star Awards
3 Xerox Creativity Awards
4 KPC&B Entrepreneurship Awards
4 Leadership in Control (11 if you add the Innovation in Control Award)
4 Delphi's Driving Tomorrow's Technology Awards
5 Motorola Quality Awards
10 Judges' Awards
0 GM Industrial Design Awards
5 Regional Chairman's Awards
3 Engineering Inspiration Awards
0 National Championships
3 Woodie Flowers Finalist Award Winners (Roly Anderson, Karthik Kanagasabapathy, Vince Lau)
3 Unsung FIRST Heroes Awards (Mark Breadner, Ian Mackenzie, Karthik Kanagasabapathy)

Here is the breakdown by year:

1998: 1
1999: 0
2000: 0
2001: 1
2002: 9
2003: 15
2004: 16
2005: 29

Not too shabby. I not arrogant or foolish enough to call us the best yet, but give it time, we got something special being brewed up here.

[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