FRC but for College students

     A friend of mine had an idea for a First robotics competition but for College students. The competition could be over the top or more advanced than a FRC competition with like a flying game or a water game just something really obscured. College over the states could compete or if not enough Colleges want to do it we could just do a big national competition. What kind of problems would teams run in to or why isn't this a thing yet?
1 Like

This is my advice from my own experience.
But I am nobody and you should not take any of my advice seriously.

Do yourself a favor and focus on school and setting up the rest of your life when in college.

Take some time off of FRC. Make friends that aren’t into robots. Discover new hobbies and do things that the time commitment of FIRST does not allow you to do.
And most importantly, graduate college.

You can always come back to FRC as a mentor. It is not going anywhere. There are also other robotics competitions you can compete in as an adult such as combat robotics.

There is more out there than the Church of FIRST. Check out what life is like outside of the cult for a while.
Again, just my opinion. And sort of not at all answering your question.

104 Likes

so one year they had a college FRC drone competition at Worlds. it was OK. there is a vex competition, its OK.

but really that time in college could be best used figuring out who you are outside of a team, do something else maybe, like get really into ultimate frisbee or bird watching or watercolor. Make a better you that if you then decide that you want to come back as a post-college thing ( or decide not to) you’ll have so much more to give to your students.

3 Likes

Many FRC alumni I know do (or did) FSAE in college. The problem doesn’t change year-to-year, so it can get boring in comparison, but it’s really the next step up in a lot of ways.

4 Likes

Design, Build, Fly. TARC. VexU, FSAE. There are tons of opportunities out there.

However I was hoping there could be a FIRST equivalent for adults at some point (accomplishing FIRST-like challenges, not Battlebots)

7 Likes

I’ll also mention: there are typically a number of STEM-oriented clubs that you’ll find in college. I’d recommend branching out and trying one - common ones include Formula SAE and Baja. In my undergrad I was heavily involved in student rocketry. Some people build battlebots.

In short, you’re not lacking for engineering challenges in college - make sure to take advantage of them, and don’t just stick to FIRST.

3 Likes

People already have and will continue to tell you, in one way or another, to:

  • find yourself outside of FIRST
  • find other hobbies
  • focus on school/make sure you graduate
  • come back and mentor afterwards

All valid advice. But you’re not asking about being a MENTOR, you’re asking about COMPETING! Unfortunately as far as I know there isn’t anything similar to FRC at the college level (outside of VEX U, Robocon, or RoboMasters if it’s still around). If there was I’m sure there’d be a community of FRC alumni involved in it. There are other engineering competitions (Formula SAE, Hyperloop, etc.) that you can get involved in.

Channel that passion for FRC into something else you find interesting. I’m sure you’ll be alright :slight_smile:

3 Likes

There ARE actually some college-level robotics competitions that feel (at least somewhat) like FRC if you know where to look for them. My school (University of Minnesota) has always competed in the NASA Robotic Mining Competition, and even though there isn’t an official in-person competition for that this year (I think they are working on restructuring the program), the University of Alabama decided to still host a similar tournament themselves and we will be competing there in late May :grin: There is another similar rover competition called “University Rover Challenge” which I don’t know much about but it’s actually an international thing with teams from both the US and abroad. There are probably more out there too, I’d suggest you do some research and see what you can find.

5 Likes

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
college FRC should be identical to high school frc, with the same games and everything, but on a 4 year delay. is this year teams would play deep space, followed by IR next year.

2 Likes

As an adult, the closest thing I’ve found to FRC level competitive intensity is Battlebots, followed by drone racing, but I unfortunately don’t think any other (more constructive) versions of adult robotics competitions actually exist, which is highly unfortunate as I feel like the best way to inspire “the next generation” to gain an interest in STEM, is to first inspire the “current generation” to be interested as well

2 Likes

I like this idea but could we please skip over IR At Home? :rofl:

8 Likes

Great advice has already been stated in this thread. There are many, many new and different opportunities at college to explore. If your path is engineering, for example, an internship to get involved with some real-world challenges can be very beneficial to complement the academic education. FIRST aims to set you up well for this next step.

If you’d like to maintain some involvement with FIRST (especially when you’re right out of high school), I’d highly recommend volunteering at an event near you. There are many technical and non-technical roles that make an event run smooth.

I think the problem with a college FIRST program is that FIRST is largely an industry recruiting tool. Once someone is in college and paying to get a STEM degree, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll go into that field regardless of any extracurriculars. It would be nice if there were opportunities to build FRC-type robots for fun as an adult, but you’d have to convince any potential sponsors they’d get something out of it. I think they’d rather just hire people than pay them to make something on their own.

3 Likes

I’ve seen that some colleges like to participate in RoboNation Competitions

1 Like

VEXU closely mirrors the FIRST Robotics Competition.
It is also one of the most cost reasonable programs to run at a University.

Here is a video of a match from VEX Worlds - 2019 VEXU

What would Woody do?

He would go become a mentor and payback/payforward the folks that brought you along to where you are now.

…and seriously focus on your education. If you want to move out of Mom & Dad’s basement, you still need other skills besides what you learn in FRC.

But hey, at 48, what do I know

5 Likes

Not quite the same but I competed in Collegiate Drone Racing Association (CDRA) in college. It’s an FPV drone racing league. You’re building drones instead of robots and the competitions are smaller scale but it’s still a lot of fun.

1 Like

Maybe not. I think working adults could easily self fund a team without the need for too many sponsors, and it also opens the door for TV opportunities which can provide the funding for venues and logistics. Again, something similar to the Battlebots model.
Even if team centric sponsors are required, this already happens in other adult competitions I mentioned (drone racing etc) and still has a direct benefit to STEM.

Note: it’s an ends to justify a means. The same workshop equipment used to support adult FRC in the summer/fall can be used to directly support high school level teams in the winter/spring

2 Likes

It’s not that much smaller. MLDR, DRL, and other major drone racing leagues as well as MultiGP which hosts pretty large events every year (IO has hundreds of pilots and runs team racing competitions)

When I went to college, I tried to find what the ‘Next big thing’ was. What I found in terms of ‘FRC but for college students’ was Solar Car racing. It is big, expensive, complex, and a huge technical and engineering challenge, and will teach you so much more than FRC will.

Of course, there are other competitions too. FSAE, Baja, Rocketry, etc. None of them are quite as technically complex as Solar Car, but are much more common, easier to get into, and less expensive.

Echoing what others said, try to expand your bounds beyond FIRST. You’re in college now, time for a bigger challenge than FRC :wink:

3 Likes