To all students - Why do I do this ?

[ebarker]

Team 1311 is working on a long term project that tests ideas on how to engage academically qualified but as of yet uninterested students to participate in FIRST and consider careers in engineering and science.

We want to know what you think. We have several questions.

1. If you are going into engineering or science, did FIRST help you decide, or did you already decide to before starting FIRST.

2. Are you more interested in the technology, or are you most interested in the application?

3. To what degree are you interested in “making a difference” with an engineering career?

4. Prior to starting FIRST did you view engineering as something for “someone like me” ?

This is a non scientific sampling and we will treat the data accordingly.

[Andrew Bates]

1. Yes, it helped me figure out that I wanted to do mechanical engineering where before I had no idea.

2. Both

3. Not much, I just want to have fun making something that is unique or "cool".

4. Yeah I guess so however I wasn't really sure what engineering was, I knew I wanted to build things.

[Alivia]

Before I answer the aforementioned questions, I'd like to state that throughout my entire robotics career, I was mainly a part of film crew/documentation of the team. I did work on a fuel cell project, the Woodie Flowers Report, and the Chairman's Report. However, I was mainly working on video and pictures of the team, and now am doing the same thing with my new team.

I think a good way to get new people to join might include telling them that FIRST is not entirely engineering and building the robot (although that is obviously an extremely major role!), but that they can also do writing (Woodie Flowers Report, and Chairman's Report), animation, film crew, team outreach, etc. This way, you can get more people interested in what the team is all about, and when they come to a meeting, they can see how cool engineering really is!

1. I don't know if this counts as technology, but I'd like to believe it does. I'm going into photojournalism, which involves media technology. I had no idea that I even enjoyed taking photographs until I joined FIRST, and after a year on the team, I knew that photojournalism (taking pictures for news stories) was for me! FIRST definitely helped me in deciding what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

2. I am more interested in the application. To see all of these amazing teams come to competition with extremely different robots that employ many different mechanisms is truly inspiring! The application is what gives me a sense of awe, and soon after the application, I realize the amount of technology that goes into what everyone has created.

3. I'm not going into an engineering field, but I do hope that, as Dean Kamen says, the students from FIRST go on and do bigger and better things that help reshape the world. I have so much respect for science and technology after being in the program, and can't wait to see what the future will bring now that we have all these inspired teenagers!

4. Before joining robotics, I didn't really think that engineering was a possiblilty. While I'm not going into engineering, I can say that FIRST enabled me to see that anything is possible, as long as you set your mind to it. I know that if I were interested in animation, I could go into a career that employed animation. If I were interested in engineering, I could become an engineer. That's one of the amazing things about the FIRST program...there's a driving force behind each student, whispering "Yes you can, yes you can, yes you can."


I realize that I probably wasn't the best person to help out here, because I'm not going into engineering, but FIRST is for everyone, not just those interested in engineering. I'm hoping that this helped a little bit with recruiting. I think that if students knew more about all the options FIRST offers, they would be extremely excited to join.

Good luck!!!

[StephLee]

1. If you are going into engineering or science, did FIRST help you decide, or did you already decide to before starting FIRST.
I had an interest in science but none whatsoever in engineering prior to my rookie year in FIRST. FIRST is entirely responsible for my college and career plans.

2. Are you more interested in the technology, or are you most interested in the application?
Half and half, really. The technology itself is the hook, what makes me interested; the applications and potential are what made me stay.

3. To what degree are you interested in “making a difference” with an engineering career?
Making a difference using engineering accurately sums up my goals. That is exactly what I want to do.

4. Prior to starting FIRST did you view engineering as something for “someone like me” ?
Prior to FIRST, I never really thought of engineering, but if I had, I wouldn't have considered it as a potential career for me. I was too shy, I would have thought.

[wilmo]

1. Before.

2. Tech.

3. 9 in a 1 to 10 scale

4. Ja.

[Ben Mitchell]

Originally Posted by ebarker

1. If you are going into engineering or science, did FIRST help you decide, or did you already decide to before starting FIRST..

FIRST helped lead me in the right direction, but I would not go so far as to say that FIRST is solely responsible. I was interested in technology before I joined FIRST, and being on my team (4 years of high school) let me explore different options. Engineering was not for me, but Technology Education was right in line with what I was interested in; working with people and exploring the human designed world.

Originally Posted by ebarker

2. Are you more interested in the technology, or are you most interested in the application?

I don't think I understand what you mean by this, (so sorry if this isn't what you are asking) but I'll have a try at answering it anyway.

To begin to discuss technology, we must first define it. My definition of technology is anything that is designed by people, which is termed the "Designed World." Often times, particularly in education, people equate technology with computers. This is very narrow and does not take the rest of the world into account. There was technology before computers, and there will be technology after computers.

That being said, the Designed World is by definition a product of human creativity that is bounded by physical limitations. That is, we can design a car, but that car needs to be made of something, it needs space to exist, etc. Science operates through paradigmatic representations of reality, with the implicit understanding being that each new fact and each new theory comes closer to explaining reality. This is sort of like having a map of a territory, as explained by Alfred Korzybski. Science is the process of making maps to represent the territory (reality).

Technology is the practical application of that map. Science gives us (humanity) the information at hand so we can see where we can go from where we are. Technology is how we apply that map to get to a destination. To further expound the analogy; scienctific progress has made availible the information on how to derive large amount of energy by splitting an atom. There are a number of different destinations (applications) for this; we can use it for relatively clean power for houses, schools, and hospitals, or we can use it for bombs.

How we use the map is up to individual people interacting and operating within a matrix of social constructs. Individual people (since societies are made up of individuals) make the choice of where to go.

I would say that technology and the application of technology are so closely intertwined that it is impossible to separate the two in the context of this question. As a professional, my job is to teach my students how to use, manage, assess, and understand current and emergent technologies so they can make informed and intelligent, and independent and critical decisions about where we are on the map, and where we should go from here.

Originally Posted by ebarker

3. To what degree are you interested in “making a difference” with an engineering career?

I graduate in my with an undergraduate degree in Technology Education, so it isn't engineering. My professional goals are in the last paragraph of #2.

Originally Posted by ebarker

4. Prior to starting FIRST did you view engineering as something for “someone like me”

Prior to FIRST I didn't really know what I wanted to go into, I just had interests and wasn't thinking about careers. FIRST certainly gave me an outlet for exploration, and pointed me in the right direction.

I think FIRST has a lot more to it than just engineering; technological literacy might be a more appropriate nomenclature; being able to apply academic knowledge to practical applications.

[Romeo1351]

1. If you are going into engineering or science, did FIRST help you decide, or did you already decide to before starting FIRST.

I knew I was going to get into engineering of some sort. FIRST was my first real exposure to it, though.

2. Are you more interested in the technology, or are you most interested in the application?

Application, definitely. The technology is awesome, no doubt, but the potential that some of this technology can have is mind-blowing, and I want to be there to see it work.

3. To what degree are you interested in “making a difference” with an engineering career?

It's always been a dream of mine to change how people see something that they've always taken for granted. Maybe virtual reality and AI, make people think about the definition of reality and life. People always take it for granted, but if certain developments occur, people will seriously have to reconsider how they see things.

4. Prior to starting FIRST did you view engineering as something for “someone like me” ?

I always figured I'd be getting into engineering in some form.

[Tottanka]

1. Before first i was sure i am going to study Computer Science in uni. Right now im 12.5% thorogh my first degree in Aerospace Engineering. My 2 dreams are to take part in building a bot that will land on mars and return, and the second one is working for FITST full time.

2. application.

3. no more then 2nd degree. Maybe doctor, but no way i will do more than that.

4. yep.

[AndyB]

Originally Posted by ebarker

Team 1311 is working on a long term project that tests ideas on how to engage academically qualified but as of yet uninterested students to participate in FIRST and consider careers in engineering and science.

We want to know what you think. We have several questions.

1. If you are going into engineering or science, did FIRST help you decide, or did you already decide to before starting FIRST.

2. Are you more interested in the technology, or are you most interested in the application?

3. To what degree are you interested in “making a difference” with an engineering career?

4. Prior to starting FIRST did you view engineering as something for “someone like me” ?

This is a non scientific sampling and we will treat the data accordingly.

1. FIRST was what made me go into engineering. I am currently in college majoring in Mechanical Engineering.

2. I'd probably say the application. I guess technology really isn't that impressive to me unless it can be applied somehow. For instance, with Dean Kamen's robotic arm, I wasn't that impressed with the amount of sensors and the degrees of movement, but rather, the application of it.

3. I don't know if I've really decided that in my life. At this point, I'm open to just about any job. I would have to say though, that I hope to stay involved with FIRST throughout college and into the workforce.

4. Not really, I started out in FIRST in my sophomore year as a webdesigner and then worked my way up to Autodesk Inventor. I was a computer guy, and since working with Inventor, I started to see how everything worked, and how everything got put together. Thats how I got interested in engineering.

[Nitroxextreme]

1. I had some idea that I wanted to go into engineering before FIRST, but it was FIRST and the experience it brings that solidified my decision.

2. I would have to say I am equally interested in technology and the application, because without one there could not possibly be the other.

3. I believe that making a difference with and engineering career is the best thing that could happen. It is my greatest hope that someday I will be behind that creation of something that revolutionizes the way everyday life is looked at.

4. Yes, If you find yourself taking apart electronics at a young age...definitely look into FIRST.

[ebarker]

Good start, keep bringing on the answers from everyone please, but especially from you young women.

[Zyik]

1. If you are going into engineering or science, did FIRST help you decide, or did you already decide to before starting FIRST.

I was interested in Science before going into FIRST, but not really engineering. Granted, FIRST got me young. Snapped me up in 7th grade through Lego League. After that I was sure I wanted to go into engineering, just kind of fuzzy on which of the many branches. FIRST eventually helped me figure that out to though. -Biomedical Engineering-

2. Are you more interested in the technology, or are you most interested in the application?

I find the technology fascinating. However, I really want to help people through the application. I want to make prosthetics, so the application is really important to me.

3. To what degree are you interested in “making a difference” with an engineering career?

A high degree. I want to make peoples lives better. Let people know that if they lose a limb, there life isn't over.

4. Prior to starting FIRST did you view engineering as something for “someone like me” ?

No, not really. I was always good at science, but prior to FIRST I really hadn't thought about it. But then, as said before, I was introduced to FIRST at a young age, so I didn't really have much time to think about it.

[Maggie27]

1. I wasn't really into engineering before I went to FIRST my 9th grade year. My boyfriend was on the team for my school, and he brought me along. I had a BLAST! I've always been way into science and putting stuff together. I never really knew much about engineering until then, and now I'm enrolled in the Engineering class at my school. Last year I did CAD/D. I'm not certain of what I want to major in, but I'm 100% sure I want it to do with science and/or engineering.

2. I like both technology & application equally.

3. I'm at a high degree of changing lives. I want to make a difference, and have people know me for many good things.

4. No, not at all. I had a sense of what it was, but I didn't see myself as the person to do this. Now I'm thinking the total opposite.

[technoL]

1. If you are going into engineering or science, did FIRST help you decide, or did you already decide to before starting FIRST.

I have always been pretty sure that I was going to do something science-related, but FIRST helped solidify exactly what I wanted to do in engineering. I was the type that was always good with math and science, but I had no clue where it would get me. Now I know.

2. Are you more interested in the technology, or are you most interested in the application?

Though the technology is an amazing aspect, I find it more interesting to see how creatively such great technologies can be applied. Technology has so much potential, which is driven by the possibilities of ground-breaking applications.

3. To what degree are you interested in “making a difference” with an engineering career?

This was one of the reasons that I was attracted to engineering. I feel as if I will be able to do great things with broad range of knowledge accumulated through studying engineering. At the moment, I don't have a specific goal, but that won't drive me away from seeking to make a difference.

4. Prior to starting FIRST did you view engineering as something for “someone like me” ?

Definitely. For a while I didn't know too much about engineering, but it seemed like something that I could potentially excel in, which I am now reassured of.