New Teams, Scholarships for 2004

[Amanda Morrison]

Now that the 2003 season is over (with the exception of IRI and other off-season competitions), a lot of seniors are leaving, a lot of rookies are enthused, and a lot of new teams will start. I know there are other things about 'Where will you start your new team?" and threads of that nature, but I thought maybe FIRST could use a thread more aimed at, "How can the FIRST community help you start a new team?" Many engineers, students, and volunteers have connections to high schools, colleges, and universities that don't have a team.

Where are you looking to start new teams (i.e. what schools, colleges, companies, etc.) and how can I (we) help? How can we get more scholarships for students from the existing college teams?

_________

I'm looking to start another team this year - this time at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I think this school, which is rich in resources and capable minds, could be a great contender for next year. Can anyone help me get this off the ground?

[Josh Hambright]

To all of you folks going to a college next year without a team and would like to start one (like dean told us to do in our homework assignment).
461 is offering to help with starting teams at colleges, we have 4 years of experience now and we seem to be doing something right, so if you want any help or advice or anything get in touch with us and we would love to help.

We especialy want to get one going at all of the indiana colleges, if your at college in indiana and dont have a team, we're coming for you soon!
Our team will be working hard to get indiana even stronger in the country as far as robotics goes. We're already known for one great machine activity (auto racing) why not robotics


_---lol this was in another thread but then i saw this one so i deleted mine and replied to yours---_

[Telly]

That is awesome, I will be a sophomore in college next year and I am really planning to push a team at my school. The type of information I need is who to start talking to at the college. From there i will seek the help of my high school's team.

[melitami]

I'm a sophomore at Drexel University, and I'm going to be working with the engineering school, the honors program, and the FIRST regional cooridinators to start a robotics club here to benefit Philly area FIRST teams. If anyone can give me info on how their robotics club works (I know Georgia Tech has a good one at least, but any thoughts/ideas/helpful hints/anything will help greatly), please pm or im or email me.

Thank you so much!!

[Kris Verdeyen]

Originally posted by amandabean
I'm looking to start another team this year - this time at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I think this school, which is rich in resources and capable minds, could be a great contender for next year. Can anyone help me get this off the ground?

Amanda - this is fantastic! Two of the engineers on 118 are Rose grads (myself and... another guy). We always talk about how Rose needs a team, especially now that they have abandoned the SunRayce.

Right now, Rose sponsors at least one Botball team, and I think that it helps with many of the local high schools, including my alma mater, Terre Haute South.

What we really need is to get those involved with Botball to come to a competition to see the energy and excitement of a FIRST competition. Say, IRI? I've never been, myself, but from what I understand, it's one of the best offseason comps. I know the teachers at THS who are mentoring the botball team, and I should be able to convince them to spend a Saturday at a competition.

Rose definately has the money (hundreds of millions of endowment, according to my alumni magazine) and resources (some really great labs and shops).

[Josh Hambright]

I dont know how much Rose would be interested in getting help from purdue due to the rivalries and all but we are very interested in trying to get a team started down there if they want help.

If you need any help from another established university team in getting things moving down there let us know cuz we would love to help out in any way we can!

[Amanda Morrison]

Alright - even though I wanted to post about my own ambitions on starting a team this year, I thought that if everyone posted in one place about starting new teams, other students and mentors could come onto one thread and find out how to help others trying to start teams for 2004.

Are any other schools looking for help?

(p.s. - thanks for the encouragement... I think this Rose-Hulman thing could happen!)

[Anne Shade]

Yes, the Georgia Tech FIRST group has been in place now for 3 years. We have helped start 17 teams in those 3 years with more on the way for next year. We would be more than happy to help other college teams get started.

The way we are organized is as follows:
Georgia Tech already had a robotics club called the RoboJackets in the ME department. We went to their officers and asked if they would be interested in a new outreach project. A few of the members had done FIRST already so they agreed to start a team. We asked the ME department and the student government each year for funds, so far so good. We also go out and get corporate sponsorship. The high school students come to our machine shop to design and build. In the fall, we hold training sessions for all the Georgia teams. We also hold a Rookie All day session for teachers of new teams, and the remote kickoff in January.

If you want more information or need help starting teams, please feel free to email or PM me and I'll try to help as much as possible. A big help would be for you to find a professor who is excited about the program and who is willing to help you get things started. The hardest part is to get administration excited about this program.

[Alex Forest]

Amanda, talk to Brian Gattman, he attends therenow and was captain of MOE (365) I know he was also thinking about startingone, and i am sure with your help you two can make it happen. =)

P.S. I may also be attending there this fall, we'll see....