**FIRST EMAIL**/FIRST Announces 2010 Autodesk

[Foster]

... and the signup takes you to the page that says:

I certify that I am not currently employed and that I became unemployed through no fault of my own. The details of my last employer are accurate and I consent to verification by Autodesk or its agents or partners. Please note that your submission and/or eligibility may be audited by Autodesk or its participating partners.

This is really directed at Mentors that work. They are trying to tell you that you should give up your day job and focus full time on the build season. You know that trying to work and doing the robot build just don't work, your job is taking important time away from build season.

[ebarker]

I speculate that the "currently unemployed" bit has nothing to do with FIRST mentors. It is likely a way for the unemployed to gain a job skill while they are unemployed. Part of their overall education program that extends beyond FIRST.

But the lack of support for industry mentors make me speculate to several things here:

a) there have been past ethics abuses
or
b) Autodesk doesn't know industry mentors exist and are not aware they are part of the FIRST process.

Either way it is a mess .....

[Jeff Pahl]

Originally Posted by ebarker

I speculate that the "currently unemployed" bit has nothing to do with FIRST mentors. It is likely a way for the unemployed to gain a job skill while they are unemployed. Part of their overall education program that extends beyond FIRST.

Either way it is a mess .....

Yes, Autodesk has a program where the unemployed can download the software to learn a new job skill.

It appears that there are still some issues to be worked out with their process for this year

If you are a school team, just have the teacher (with the .edu email address) add you to the list of students. However, that does not work for a non-school (or non-US) team.

Someone who is actively having this problem probably needs to take this issue up directly with FIRST HQ to get it resolved.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Jeff Pahl

If you are a school team, just have the teacher (with the .edu email address) add you to the list of students. However, that does not work for a non-school (or non-US) team.
.

So is it based on the .edu part? That makes things difficult...our school email addresses (staff and students alike) all end in .org . However, we do have college mentors with .edu email addresses--would that work? (I haven't had time to check out the mess that seems to be the Autodesk site.)

[Jeff Pahl]

Originally Posted by Karibou

So is it based on the .edu part? That makes things difficult...our school email addresses (staff and students alike) all end in .org . However, we do have college mentors with .edu email addresses--would that work? (I haven't had time to check out the mess that seems to be the Autodesk site.)

It's been a couple of years since I signed up for the educational program, using the email address provided by my grad school. It seemed like their system automatically knew that a .edu address was a school, and anything else required review by a human. So I think there was a process where a teacher could sign up (and get verified by a human) and then could send invitations to students.

Like I said, it's been a couple of years, so things may have changed or my failing memory may be incorrect. YMMV. Have a teacher try it and see what happens... Good Luck (and let us all know!)

[rcoren22]

I have had an educational login to this website for a couple of years.
When I click the link to get to the new firstbase, and login it takes me to my old autodesk educational communtiy.
If I click a link to FIRST on the right side, it takes me to another spot where it logs me out, essentially in an endless cycle.

I have emailed them but received no answer.
Has anybody else had similair results or figured out a solution?

[ebarker]

Everyone,

I have been communicating with Laura London, an executive with Autodesk.

Autodesk is committed to supporting students, teachers AND mentors !! There are a couple of glitches in transitioning to the new system and they are working to resolve the problems.

from Laura,

"All mentors can join the Community and utilize all the FIRST specific resources, including software downloads and learning materials. This year teams have access to over 22 Autodesk products – which is a huge step up from years past. Each and every member of the team has this access, which again opens access up to as many FRC stakeholders as possible…students, teachers, mentors alike.

Now, all FIRST teams will be registering on the FIRST home page of our Community. Please go to http://autodesk.com/first and click to “sign up”. You will then receive an email shortly confirming your registration. Once you click on the registration link in the email you will have activated your account and will be taken through the FIRST team steps.

We have created a FRC toolkit & there you may now create your team, download the software and much more. For your convenience and to help you and your teams through the new process we have created both an FAQ and a Step by Step guide. The Step by Step will help you create your team, invite your students, and will also be a great tool for your students during their registration."

continuing.......

"Your students no longer need to use a special invitation URL. They may also go to http://autodesk.com/first however they will choose to join your team once you have set it up.

The next time you log in (you will always go to http://autodesk.com/first), you should see the default site banner noting that you have been defaulted to the Mechanical Engineering Discipline within the Education Community (don’t worry if this needs to be changed as you may change it in your profile later). You will access the FIRST toolkit either by clicking the promo box on the right hand side of the page for the FIRST Toolkit or you may click on the Learn menu option and select FIRST from the dropdown.
"

If you have trouble send a help request here


Ed

.

[Akash Rastogi]

Our team has had access to like 27 different products from Autodesk for a month now...no problems whatsoever...

perhaps a few of you have been doing something wrong?

[Anne_droid]

Thanks for posting that information, Ed. It seems that the registration screen that required you to be a teacher was a mistake on the part of the Autodesk site (as well as the one that required you to be unemployed).

I was able to register under the generic registration screen. Actually, the site still has some issues since it told me my email address was already registered, then when I tried to log in it took me to a blank screen, but I just registered a different email address.

So I'm still finding some technical problems, but at least the school/faculty issue is cleared up.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by Anne_droid

So I'm still finding some technical problems, but at least the school/faculty issue is cleared up.

Anytime anyone sees a problem if they will send a not to Autodesk it will help in shaking down the system and getting the burrs out.

That is what we all like - a 'burr'less product......