At the 11AM seminar for the 2009 control system, there was a chart that showed NI’s involvement in the different levels of first.
At the top was a horizontal bar with the different competitions and their age ranges. Below “FIRST Lego League” was an icon for NXT-G with a bar fading out to the right, and to the right of that was a bar fading in and an icon for Labview.
After “FIRST Robotics Competition”, above the Labview icon, was “FIRST University” for ages 18+.
If there was an announcement, I missed it.
Does anyone know anything about FIRST University?
I was talking to one of my uni friends about starting a team and just ordering a KOP and building whatever the challenge was…and compete amongst ourselves…
The chart just says “University” not, “FIRST University”. I think they were just referring to the fact that some colleges use the same technologies developed by NI.
I stand corrected. That chart does just say university.
It does appear to be the same chart that was shown at the seminar, but I was pretty sure it said FIRST University when it was shown there.
Either the chart shown at the seminar was different than the one in the video, or more likely, I wasn’t fully awake (or rather, wasn’t fully asleep) when I read that.
You were probably were imagining “University” saying “FIRST University” because you including everyone’s minds racing with FIRST :rolleyes: .:] But yeah, very more than likely they’re referring how universities and colleges uses Labview’s technology already because like fore example, here at the Colorado School of Mines, they have everyone use Solidworks and NI Labview Programs at some point in their college education.
Probably.
The chart is somewhat misleading with all the first competitions, then “University”. Add the fact that I was in a cold induced trance for the better part of Thursday, and there’s the potential for things to be read which don’t exist.
The closest thing I have found is the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (http://www.igvc.org/) Obviously there is the Darpa challenges but thats not really like FRC…
I second that FIRST at a college level would be amazing…
There are many robotics competitions, most of them are very regional because of the busy lives us college kids live. A new one that my school is participating in is the University Rover Challenge: The Mars Society
Others that former FIRST students have enjoyed are of course the DARPA challenge, individual competitions like robogames (robot Olympics) and mini BAJA . I know there are a lot more and there are some university teams competing in team 842’s NURC.
I’d wait till ESPNU makes an announcement about Battlebots before getting any sort of commitment towards it. This kind of stuff has been circulating for years.
Yes, it definitely looks as though they were trying to express how the utilities you use from JrFLL through FRC are tools you may use in a University (basically saying that FIRST is good exposure to things that will potentially be useful in college - which is always a great thing!)
As for a FIRST College program, I think it would be pretty cool, but it would probably be difficult to get colleges on board. Being a mentor on a college team is a lot of work, and it can definitely take away from your studies which is what you are going to school for (I would love to go to school for FIRST all year round, but we all just have to come to terms that life isn’t that awesome lol)
But who knows what the future will bring. All I know is I love being a Mentor and I look forward to continuing that!
I actually think it would be a lot easier to get colleges on board than high schools. First, colleges usually have a lot more money so that wouldn’t be as much as a problem. Secondly, colleges that have engineering majors would certainly be interested because it is a place to apply the things learned in class than in high school where engineering classes are a lot less abundant. With the time commitment, I don’t think the school wouldn’t be on board because it is too much work. I know at my school they let the students pretty much do whatever they want.
I think the question of having a College FIRST is would it inspire and spread science more than what it right now? I’m not sure. On of the goals of FIRST is to get more people interested in pursuing a career in science and technology. In college, most people already know what they will be doing and teams will be from schools. I would invision the teams would come from colleges that are centered around science and technology, so the people on the team will already be pursuing a career in science in technology.
While I think a College FIRST would be a ton of fun (I’m sure I would take part), I don’t think there is a lot pay off compared to the work and funding needed. I think those colleges and college students should focus on mentoring other teams and getting high school students interested in science and technology instead of giving more resources to those already interested.
One other thing to remember is that, when one thing happens there is always a counter reaction to it. If a College competition starts, what will happen to all those college based FRC teams? What would it look like if they moved away from FRC to this new competition, how would that change FRC, and how many teams would they lose?
lol)