Thoughts on new US FIRST splash page?

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by GGCO

What I've always wondered is why does FIRST always feel a need to pander to people who already aren't interested in becoming engineers? Are all of will.i.am's fans suddenly going to join your FIRST Robotics team? Do we want that? People who don't care about solving problems joining FIRST because their favorite artist endorses them?

The reason FIRST "panders" to people who aren't interested in engineering is because there is a massive shortage of engineers in North America. Even more concerning, is that there is an even larger shortage of people who want to be engineers. To solve this problem we need to excite as many people about engineering very quickly. Having someone with as much mainstream appeal as will.i.am is a great strategy to draw large amounts of attention to a program that has been relatively hidden to the masses.

[GGCO]

Originally Posted by Karthik

The reason FIRST "panders" to people who aren't interested in engineering is because there is a massive shortage of engineers in North America. Even more concerning, is that there is an even larger shortage of people who want to be engineers. To solve this problem we need to excite as many people about engineering very quickly. Having someone with as much mainstream appeal as will.i.am is a great strategy to draw large amounts of attention to a program that has been relatively hidden to the masses.

I don't know if I'd agree with that statement. As I've looked over the statistics of how many engineers there are in North America, it looks like the number has remained relatively consistent. Also, the numbers of engineers in other countries like China and India are skewed and inaccurate. I've seen FIRST officials throw these around, so maybe that's where you're getting your information from.

Now we may need more tech-savvy workers in the (near) future, but you need to realize that engineers are an odd breed. Really we are. We work with other people to solve really challenging problems. That's pretty amazing when you think about it.

My concern is that we get a bunch of people interested in engineering, sell them on the idea that engineering is a glamorous and fantastic career, and then they end up hating it and instead of quitting become a terrible engineer. This kind of thinking gets us in trouble in other areas down the road.

For example, when people say, "We need more [INSERT MINORITY HERE] to be engineers!" I always ask, "Why? Don't we just need good engineers? I could care less what their skin color, gender, or sexual preference happens to be."