I stumbled upon this website while researching the FIRST organization.
I am doing a research paper on the impact FIRST competitions has made on students to pursue majors and careers in science, engineering, and technology. There are a great deal of websites that provide information on the subject but unfortunately I need to cite three books, newspapers, or magazines as well. What I am looking for is the number of competitions, locations, and amount of participants starting from the initial competition (1992) through to now to show the increased popularity and outreach of FIRST competitions. Post-competition success stories, personal success stories (in your own words), articles in newspapers, articles in magazines such as Popular Science, and books on the subject would also be very helpful. Anything anyone has to say will be appreciated. If someone reputable has something to say I’m all ears; You might even make it into my essay (properly quoted of course ).
Number of competitions can be found on the FIRST website. I want to say that we’re up to or over 50 regional and district events, but I’ve lost count. (Even the fantasy league can’t keep up with how many, just what and when!)
There are some personal stories on here; they can be found in after-event reflection-type threads, or by looking at the Unsung FIRST Heroes area (linked in the gray bar at the top of the page.
You might take a look at the FIRST in the News subforum here; many times, if FIRST is in the news, someone will put a link there.
I’m sure someone with a more lithe memory than mine can make a better list, but off the top of my head I can think of FIRST articles appearing in Robot Magazine and Popular Mechanics. Books would include Behind the Design (IIRC there’s been one each year since 2006, by Vince W. and Steve S.). For a more local and intimate flavor, check out newspaper articles near regional events or the FIRST in the News forum of Chief Delphi.
Good luck with your report and let us know how it goes! It would be awesome if you post a copy of it here for us!
Operative word: If. 2006 and 2007 were the only ones before they stopped doing them. (I also want to say that the second author is wrong for at least one, but am not sure.)
I think there may also be a few appearances in Servo.
I don’t know what team information per year is readily available, and in what format it is in. But, I do know that Mark McLeod of 358 posted This thread which has a link to an excel file containing FRC teams and breakdown alphabetically and by year. Hope this helps and good luck!
There was a thread with a suggestion similar to this in 2009 with links to many articles. (Which I remember because I posted a link to Today’s Machining World which had a nice article about FIRST and our team in it - silly title, but great article)
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