Fun Wild Idea: Corporate Sponsors Build & Compete!

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Mike Schreiber

They have a science consultant who is a physics professor at UCLA, and actress Mayim Bialik (plays Amy) has her PhD in neuroscience. They're smart people, they may not be engineers, but I'm sure they could build a working robot, even if it isn't Einstein level.

To be fair, most FRC teams can't build a working robot.

[themccannman]

Originally Posted by Mike Schreiber

They have a science consultant who is a physics professor at UCLA, and actress Mayim Bialik (plays Amy) has her PhD in neuroscience. They're smart people, they may not be engineers, but I'm sure they could build a working robot, even if it isn't Einstein level.

I didn't say they were dumb, or stupid. But none of them specialize in any of the fields used in FRC. Besides, mayim bialik, all of the others have a background entirely in acting. I feel like simply having them promote FRC would be a better choice. Having them build a robot wouldn't add to visibility. However, maybe having them team up with experienced mentors and building robots to compete against each other might be more successful and interesting.

[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by Doc Wu

How about including a celebrity team? I'd like to see what Will-i-am and the Black Eyed Peas come up with. Or a team from Mythbusters...

I like that idea - Big Bang Theory vs Mythbusters!

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

I like that idea - Big Bang Theory vs Mythbusters!

I don't think that would be a very fair competition.

[Cory]

There was a local soap box derby type race held up until 2001 here in the Bay Area as a fundraiser for a nonprofit that featured something similar. They had a high school division and a corporate division. Most of the local FRC teams competed in it. Compaq, Hitachi, HP, KPCB, Sun, and pretty much every other influential tech/VC company in Silicon Valley participated.

The lengths that the corporate teams went to to outdo each other were pretty ridiculous. They had teams of engineers working on them full time, some did wind tunnel testing, one had 2 members of the US Olympic bobsled team as their pushers at the beginning. I can't even imagine how much money they spent each year.

[Jon Stratis]

This is basically every mentors dream job... I'd love to take a few months off my regular job to be able to actually design and build a robot of my own

[Chief Hedgehog]

I would be willing to throw down the gauntlet to my sponsors.

But I think 6 weeks is too generous. I think a time frame of around 1 week would be suffice...

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

We were throwing around an idea about how companies might get more engaged in FRC. We thought that FIRST could by inviting a half dozen sponsoring companies such as Boeing, Lockheed, Northrup, GM, Ford and Chrysler to each meet the game challenge, build a robot in 6 weeks and then compete in a special match on Einstein. It might generate a buzz about the competition and more actively engage the companies in for inspiration and recognition of science and technology (FIRST).

We didn't get into the specifics of logistics etc other than there should be a budget limit, e.g., $10k each. We're more interested in first impressions about the idea before going off into the particulars about how it would work.

With a few edits, this idea is remarkably similar to one that a guy in Manchester NH had circa 1989. Through creativity and persistence, he was able to get it off the ground in 1992, and after that the thing just exploded.

[dradel]

How about myth busters mentoring a few companies build teams? Say Orange County choppers vs Paul jr designs vs Jesse James.

None of them have robot experience, but all have fabrication experience. Would be fun to see them out of their comfort zones. Plus they all have discovery channel ties so could be a great boost to first with the tv coverage. The unveil could be at champs.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

We were throwing around an idea about how to companies might get more engaged in FRC. We thought that FIRST could invite a half dozen sponsoring companies such as Boeing, Lockheed, Northrup, GM, Ford and Chrysler to each meet the game challenge, build a robot in 6 weeks and then compete in a special match on Einstein. It might generate a buzz about the competition and more actively engage the companies in FIRST.

This is what FRC is. At the very least, it's my understanding that this is how it all started.

If you go back and watch footage from early years, you'll notice they don't call teams by their name, or their number, but by their sponsor. Many teams had a single corporate sponsor paired with a high school, so you would literally see GM versus Motorola in the finals. FRC enticed corporations and engineers by presenting a cool challenge with publicity and name recognition for the winner - plus working with high schoolers who can be inspired by how cool everything is and for most teams take a hands-on role in a real engineering challenge.

Somewhere along the line, FIRST's desire for growth led to the creation of more teams that start at the high school level and find sponsors, rather than starting at the sponsor level and finding high schools. The educational aspects of the competition saw more emphasis, COTS lowered the barrier to entry in terms of engineering resources, and FIRST actively aimed put itself in every high school in the US.

Again, I wasn't there (I was *born* in the first year of FRC), but this is how it's been described to me. I feel like an understanding of FRC's roots helps explain the corporate-school partnership a bit better and can put to rest fears or complaints about "sponsor built robots" - indeed, that was the point at one time.

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

If you go back and watch footage from early years, you'll notice they don't call teams by their name, or their number, but by their sponsor. Many teams had a single corporate sponsor paired with a high school, so you would literally see GM versus Motorola in the finals. FRC enticed corporations and engineers by presenting a cool challenge with publicity and name recognition for the winner - plus working with high schoolers who can be inspired by how cool everything is and for most teams take a hands-on role in a real engineering challenge.

Interesting, that might be why in the official FIRST database for every regional registration list it shows the sponsors under the category labeled name - a remnant from a previous time.

Though I do think it would be cool to see just the professionals on their own team, and see how they compare to the FRC student side teams!

[snoman]

Same budget as HS teams (may be hard to regulate ) but than the top 3 corporate could face off with the top 3 HS teams.

[SpaceBiz]

This is a great Idea.

The Idea of an arbitrary limit dosn't make sense to me.

You should have all existing sponsors who want to participate place bids on how much they are willing to spend on the project. They must match this amount in a donation to FIRST for the entry fee. The 6th highest bid becomes the limit and fee for all 6 teams. (placing budget limit deprives teams of seeing actual professional robots built for competition. The more sponsors are willing to spend, the more publicity gained, plus shipping costs are going to almost double production cost with tight timeline)

The first, and most important restriction would be the time given to build. This could be anywhere between 3 days (robot in 3 days) or two weeks. I don't think people who are employed full time to build a robot would need any more than that.

The second major restriction would be build team size. I would say put some limit on the number of former and or active mentors per team. Also maybe limit number of people who can participate two years in a row.

Lastly, the the randomly selected alliance that wins in Einstein will get priority to compete following year.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Abhishek R

Interesting, that might be why in the official FIRST database for every regional registration list it shows the sponsors under the category labeled name - a remnant from a previous time.

It's not a remnant. Not at all. Some teams STILL have numbers that were once assigned based on sponsor. 330, for example, was team 82 at one point... but that next year, Raytheon took over Hughes, and 330 dropped a couple hundred numbers. The teams in the 170 range were UTC teams. 190s tended to be Xerox. (I believe that that was also the year that rookies started getting numbers based on registration order.)

Let me make one thing clear: Without the sponsors, many teams would not exist. By having the sponsors as part of the team's official name, FIRST is choosing to recognize the sponsors' involvement and partnership with the teams to help inspire the next generation of engineers, teachers, technicians, and other future leaders. Specifically, the partnership. This isn't something to be taken lightly--these companies have made an investment in the future--and specifically, their future.

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by EricH

It's not a remnant. Not at all. Some teams STILL have numbers that were once assigned based on sponsor. 330, for example, was team 82 at one point... but that next year, Raytheon took over Hughes, and 330 dropped a couple hundred numbers. The teams in the 170 range were UTC teams. 190s tended to be Xerox. (I believe that that was also the year that rookies started getting numbers based on registration order.)

Let me make one thing clear: Without the sponsors, many teams would not exist. By having the sponsors as part of the team's official name, FIRST is choosing to recognize the sponsors' involvement and partnership with the teams to help inspire the next generation of engineers, teachers, technicians, and other future leaders. Specifically, the partnership. This isn't something to be taken lightly--these companies have made an investment in the future--and specifically, their future.

Oh ok, nice to know. Sorry, I didn't mean to downplay the significance of any sponsors.