I have a question for the whole robotics community : What is your favorite part of a First robotics competition?
For me, It is being with my friends and traveling in the pits talking to other teams, meeting new people.
I would like to know what other people enjoy most about the competitions.
I would like to know what drives every person, future engineer or not.
The best part of FIRST is the fact that it exists.
It gives high school students new opportunities and paths in engineering, science, technology, and business, all while having fun, learning respect for others, being competitive, and achieving goals on a deadline.
Perhaps we could re-vitalize this thread?
Or are you asking a different question?
Just trying to reduce threads. If your intent was something different, than I’m sorry.
And my favorite part of FIRST is all of the other people involved, especially those on CD.
Jacob
My favorite part of FIRST Robotics, is the exact part that it was designed for. It allows students interested in Robotics, engineering and technology to gain real world type experience, and allows students to develop skill which otherwise may not have been available to them.
Overall I also enjoy the method by which they obtain this goal. It connects students with people with actual experience to accieve a goal that may be useful or similar to something that would happen in the real world. Also, the fact that it is like a sport makes it very interesting, especially those who are involved and knows what goes into the robot. The people involved in FIRST are largely the most interesting and nice people out there.
It’s hard to choose just one, but, I would have to say, it would be the fact that it was a real oportunity to practice programming, which I had always wanted to to, but due to the size of my school there was no classes on.
Watching and being a part of teams that set high standards for quality in robot design and fabrication.
I think one of the best parts of FIRST, is that you spend 6 weeks or so, building a robot, clueless as to the ideas that have run through other teams’ minds (except for the CD posts), and then, you go to a competition and see what everyone else did. It really helps to apply engineering problem solving skills. I also like meeting other teams, and I actually enjoy scouting as well. Scouting enables me to observe other teams and their robots. I really like that, and I also like working with our alliance partners (if we’re drafted) to come up with a unique strategy that will work for our group. All of it goes back to the amazing program that FIRST has become.