How many colleges have teams?

[archiver]

Posted by Frank, Coach on team #97, Psychedelics, from CRLS and MIT.

Posted on 5/12/99 7:07 PM MST


In Reply to: How many colleges have teams? posted by colleen on 5/12/99 6:23 PM MST:



Well the MIT team has been in existance for a few years now, but it
almost completely changes membership every year or two. Here's how
we're set up.

Money...
The Institute gives us very little for being a student group here. We
get most of our funding through sponsorships from local businesses and
individuals. It's really hard to get enough...couuntless hours of
calling companies and telling them about FIRST. Luckilly the Cambridge
area is very receptive to technology programs. We're still one of the
lower budget teams though and couldn't afford buttons this year and
a few other staple items. We sacraficed these for allowing almost the
whole team to travel to FL.

Participation...
The robot is designed by the CRLS high school students and MIT
participants (all students). We build in a machine shop on campus
and train the high school students in use of the machines before the
competition so that they can use them when the time comes. We have
no MIT faculty members involved in the competition and no teachers
from the high school. We're entirely student run.

Travel...
This year we attended the NJ Regional and FL. We rented a van and
chartered a bus for the regional and arranged for shuttles to get us to
the airport for FL. For both competition a small group went down on Wed.
night and the rest ofthe team arrived for the competition days.

Well that's all I have time to write. If anyone has any questions
about the way we make a university team work, feel free to ask!

Frank

Team #97 MIT/CRLS - '99
Team #111 WildStang - '96-'98