Skills USA

[ShotgunNinja]

I competed in the Wisconsin SkillsUSA competition this year and last year, in 3D Visualization and Animation, only because they didn't offer Computer Science. :frown: Both years, our team failed to render the video clip because (what else?) we had no time to train because of FIRST Robotics. Now, I'm not blaming FIRST for my own lack of success, because I could have definitely trained at Nationals (and besides, I ended up having a pretty good time anyway), but the fact that the Nationals ended on Saturday and SkillsUSA started on Tuesday of the following week didn't help much.

They did offer a Sumo Bot contest at the Wisconsin competition, and despite us not being in it, it was nice to see that robotics is starting to creep into the automotive-, construction-, and healthcare-dominated Wisconsin SkillsUSA program.

Now, are there any others who are rocking FIRST and Skills too?

[Burmeister #279]

Robotics and Automation Technology [scorebot robot arms] for me =)

I really would love to get my team more involved with spreading FIRST and thus i was wondering if there are any tips for going about getting a booth at a skills competition?

Edit: We're in Ohio by the way.

[IndySam]

Our school hosts the Indiana State Championship every year and unfortunately it's usually the same weekend as the FIRST Championship.

[ATannahill]

A student on our team won in the Florida competition and is moving on to Kansas for the Championships.

[Burmeister #279]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

A student on our team won in the Florida competition and is moving on to Kansas for the Championships.

Ditto for ours. Technical Math @ Ohio.

[ShotgunNinja]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

A student on our team won in the Florida competition and is moving on to Kansas for the Championships.

The student from our school who won (because as a FIRST team we have to have one of 'em) was unfortunately not on the FIRST team this year, of his own decision, and is going on to Kansas for the CAD - Architectural Drafting in Wisconsin.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by IndySam

Our school hosts the Indiana State Championship every year and unfortunately it's usually the same weekend as the FIRST Championship.

I competed my senior year and actually made it to the top ten in state for drafting. If I recall correctly, there were several Kil-A-Byte bots on display while we walked to the computer lab. It was fun, but there were technical problems. Overall, not as fun as FIRST, but I still enjoyed the experience.

[Grant Cox]

One of my really good friends made it to the national level repeatedly for electronics.. he was supposed to join our team, but again the scheduling conflict a few others have mentioned came up (he didn't really want to bother being on the team if he wasn't going to see the bot perform at the world championship). From what I've heard, the Skills national event is very similar to our Championship Event, in terms of intensity, cooperation/competition, and social value (meeting people from all over the place with similar interests).

[kjohnson]

My high school participated in the VA Skills USA competitions.

I won the competition Residential Wiring competition at the VA State Fair in 2004, and we had students go to the championship for brick-laying.

[henryBsick]

My senior year ('06) I placed 3rd in PA states in one of the electronics competitions. Not bad for a mechanical guy