Reasons why FIRST is good for Universities

[EricH]

I think the OP wanted to talk to university faculty representatives, especially if they work with the team. This is something that would fall into their area, and might have reasons that students wouldn't necessarily know about.

[JohnCushion]

Originally Posted by EricH

I think the OP wanted to talk to university faculty representatives, especially if they work with the team. This is something that would fall into their area, and might have reasons that students wouldn't necessarily know about.

Yes. We are trying to contact university representatives and find out why they sponsor FIRST. Plenty of research has been done on the effects of FIRST on the students who are involved, I would point anyone who is interested in these to the report done by Brandeis University, which can be found on the FIRST website here: http://usfirst.org/aboutus/content.a...terms=brandeis.

We are asking that ChiefDelphi readers who know of an university which supports FIRST ask a faculty representative if they would be willing to fill out a survey, then contact us either through ChiefDelphi or via email at fqp@wpi.edu


Thank you

John Cushion, Katherine King, Autumn Paro, Sebastian Courtney

[Joe Ross]

FIRST recently posted a lot of marketing material. http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...er.aspx?id=638 One of the flyers is specifically geared for universities. It mentions a survey of universities, and has several statistics from it. It might be worth tracking down that survey.

[Jonathan Norris]

John,

Our team, K-Botics team 2809, is partnered with Queen's University here in Kingston Ontario. Feel free to contact me if you want us to help out.

[JohnCushion]

Just to restate to everyone what we are trying to achieve with this thread.

Our project at WPI is to survey Universities nationwide that support FIRST through mentorship, sponsorship or through any other means. However, there are over 300 universities in the United States that provide some amount of support. We are asking that if anyone on ChiefDelphi who has some connection to any university that supports FIRST to ask the lead contact within that university if they are willing to answer some questions and either ask them to contact us either by e-mail at fqp@wpi.edu or here on ChiefDelphi.

Thank you all again

John Cushion, Autumn Paro, Sebastian Courtney, Katherine King

[Vince]

John -

Here are some links to background material on your project.

Though dated, the references might be a source of university folks that you can connect with.

I think your work is very important, and recognize the challenge finding specific university faculty to connect with - Vince

FIRST & Universities Discussion Paper

Document that accompanied Woodie's 2004 presentation to engineering educators

Journal paper on using FIRST at universities