Hello.
My name is Jason Trotter a former X-Cat who is trying to get a team started here at RPI. Rather than start a new team, the Dean of Engineering would rather have us join a team. So… He has asked us to find some Albany area teams that he would look into for possible sponsoring. We know of team 250 but were just wondering if there were any others.
Well let me know,
Later,
Jason T.
I was under the impression that RPI worked with team #250.
I know they used to be one of the main parts of that team in past years, they seemed to drop off, but I was almost positive after playing w/ them @ the Long Island regional that they were RPI affilated, at least with ‘mentor’ involvement.
Something to look into maybe.
Well from what the Dean told us is that he remembers some sort of involvement but he was unsure of as to what extent. He remebers writing a check for something FIRST related. We are looking into the possibility of seeing how we can get involved with team 250 again.
Jason
From what little I know about the RPI situation, I believe that the RPI students involvement in FIRST has tailed off considerably (this is basically only stuff I’ve heard through other people). I also believe that RPI gave financial support to team 250 last year (and in the past). As for other teams in the area, I don’t believe there are any. Your best bet would be to check with FIRST however. While the Dean may recommend just supporting an existing team, personally, I’d recommend the opposite, if merely for the reason that more teams is always a good thing. Given that you have experience with FIRST and the Dean doesn’t, you may be able to convince him that starting a new team is the way to go. If you do so, I would definately suggest finding some sort of faculty (staff are better than professors for this) to help champion your cause against the buearacracy. It helps quite a bit. 
Matt
Well, team 250 (that would be my team) is the only team around here. last year was my first year on the team and we had five seniors from RPI do all our strategy stuff…if anyone remembers our play book, yea, that was them. as far as financial support from RPI, i don’t know what we’re getting or not getting. So Jason, you’re more than welcome to join our team or help us in any way. We need all the help we can get because for the past ten years we’ve nicknamed ourselves as rookies…this year puts us at 11 year rookies. but that’s just our sorry story!
keep smiling!