Posted by Andy Grady.
Other on team in limbo from in limbo sponsored by in limbo.
Posted on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST
Hi all, here is the question of the week:
Question 11/5/00: What country would you like to see first represented by? We already have a canadian team and brazillian team. Also if FIRST expands how could the problem of language barriers be solved?
Posted by Justin.
Other on team Blue Lightning Alumni Association from RWU sponsored by FIRST-A-holics Anonymous.
Posted on 11/5/2000 8:44 AM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
Andy,
It’s gotta be Japan. Because we have the biggest engineering rival with them already. A lot of tech comes out of the country. There’s the whole Japaneese vs. American car debate. Think of the rivalry there would be between the American teams sponsored by GM or Chrysler and the Japaneese teams sponsored by Nissan or Toyota. Course the downside to this would be getting our buts kicked by them but hey. 
-Justin
Posted by nick reynolds.
Engineer on team #237, sie h2o bots, from watertown high ct.
Posted on 11/5/2000 10:16 AM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
Being originaly from England ‘a nation of tinkers ’ I think FIRST should have their first overseas competition there. The US$ is strong and England is just on the right hand side of America, a short
swim for some teams.Earls Court arena can hold a zillion people and ‘American’ is understood in England.
The only problems that I can fore see is the food stinks ’ spoty dick and toad in the hole’, They use Pounds not Dollars, Electricity is 220v and we drive on the wrong side of the road but US Teams could adapt.
Just my ‘Two Shilling’ worth.
nick237
: Hi all, here is the question of the week:
: Question 11/5/00: What country would you like to see first represented by? We already have a canadian team and brazillian team. Also if FIRST expands how could the problem of language barriers be solved?
Posted by colleen. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Engineer on team #190, Gompei, from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science and WPI.
Posted on 11/5/2000 2:30 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
First off- to answer the question… I think it would be really great to see countries like Japan and China, other technological leaders in the world, participate in FIRST…
Something I’ve always thought should be one of the ultimate ends of FIRST is global expansion… to the point that we not only have a ‘national champ’ but a world champion… in a true tiered competition… teams from around the world compete in regional then national competitions to earn their way to the world championship and ultimate recoginition… other countries are always beating the US in math and science scores in testing, etc… a competition-like atmosphere would bring us, to some level, up to the caliber of those other countries…
The next and what I would think the coolest step:
Robot Olympics!
Figure this-- you have FIRST, BattleBots, RobotWars, Junkyard Wars… soon to be much others!
So we have a robot olympics in all those catagories… a bringing together of all the wonderful robotic competitions into one big spotlight
‘oh the places you’ll go…’
and language barriers-- in this ever expanding world… where we go to school and work with people of all nationalities and languages it’s something we all just have to be willing to work at to make it work…
lesson #1: How to say ‘I like your robot’ in many languages:
Spanish: Tengo gusto de su robusteza.
French: J’aime votre robot.
German: Ich mag Ihren Roboter.
Italian: Gradisco il vostro robot
Portugeuse: Eu gosto de seu robô
(despite the fact that my cast is signed in japanese, i can’t really do any of the characters or anything in here… but you get the jist…)
Posted by Ken Leung. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from University of California, Berkeley.
Posted on 11/5/2000 3:50 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
: Hi all, here is the question of the week:
: Question 11/5/00: What country would you like to see first represented by? We already have a canadian team and brazillian team. Also if FIRST expands how could the problem of language barriers be solved?
Right when I finish reading this question some of the major European countries came to my mind: England, Germany, Netherlands… etc. Then Justin mentioned Japan, and I agree that some Asian countries should be included too: Taiwan, China, (Hong Kong), Korea… etc.
To me, the question is not what countries should join the competition. Because I feel that all the high school students around the world should do something like FIRST. The question should be: How can we let high schools around the world compete together in a competition.
You mentioned language barriers, but that’s only the first step. If you look at the World Cup, I think they handled language barriers pretty well, considering every time they had teams from all over the world competing with the language of soccer. So, maybe we can compete in the language of FIRST…(?) The major problem, I believe, is the difference of currencies, measurement system, industrial standards… etc. At US FIRST, we use inches, US dollars, and we order small parts from SPI. I don’t suppose we can force other countries to use the same things.
So how are we going to set the rules for multiple countries? I can imagine we will convert between currencies, and I suppose other countries can find companies like SPI. But we will have to look at how the economy will benefit certain countries and detriment others. Maybe we will have to look at how different countries construct the new space station and how they work together.
One thing for sure is FIRST will have to expand a lot in order to held competition across the Oceans, unless we force teams from other countries to come to US to compete. But I feel that as FIRST grow bigger and bigger, there need to have competition across the Oceans, and then we will have the Global competition at a different country every year (or maybe every two or four year due to budget problems). And hopefully by then the governments will sponsors teams to compete in the competitions.
But one question I have no idea how to solve: How can we keep politics out of competition at the global scale, or even continental scale? And how can we ensure that it’s really high school students who are building the robots and not some high tech factories with a team of 100 professional engineers, just because some countries felt the need to win the competition no matter what?
Posted by Samuel Lindhorst.
Engineer on team #240, MachVee, from Jefferson High School and Visteon.
Posted on 11/6/2000 11:50 AM MST
In Reply to: How to make the expansion of FIRST work? posted by Ken Leung on 11/5/2000 3:50 PM MST:
: But one question I have no idea how to solve: How can we keep politics out of competition at the global scale, or even continental scale? And how can we ensure that it’s really high school students who are building the robots and not some high tech factories with a team of 100 professional engineers, just because some countries felt the need to win the competition no matter what?
Exactly right, Ken. I’d love to see the Japanese and Germans compete, but I think very quickly it would devolve into a ‘cost is no object’ Olympic style national pride contest, and of course the students would be long forgotten, along with some FIRST ideals.
I’d love to see the quality of build either nations’s teams would come up with. I think both nations would incredibly fertile ground for something like FIRST. The Japanese have a Robot Sumo competition for high schools, but I think our games demand much more creativity.
I think in order for this to happen, FIRST has grow from the ground up inside of those countries. There has to be a strong national organization, as there is here, able to keep the focus (barely) on the important things, and resist pressures to make it something else.
I’m always struck by the manner in which the awards for winning the national competition are handed out very quickly, and the winners almost dismissed, and the ‘real’ awards, schoolarships, Woody Flowers, Founder’s and Chairman’s awards rolled out with much more fanfare. Even things like ‘featherweight in the finals’ get a play up as much as the National Champs do. I think the whole thing just drives home the point about what FIRST really thinks is important in the competition - and it’s not the competition… :o)
Posted by Ian.
Student on team #188 from Woburn C.I…
Posted on 11/5/2000 3:54 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
If FIRST really wants to expand internationally, there are a few issues they will have to address. One problem our team (Team 188, from Toronto, Canada) has is that it takes FOREVER to get anything from Small Parts. We often end up buying one part from SPI and having to buy the same part up here so we can keep building, which wastes quite a bit of money. Also, getting the robot through Customs is a bit of a challenge, although I guess FIRST can’t really do much about that.
-Ian Mackenzie
Woburn Robotics
www.team188.com
Posted by Joe Johnson. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 11/5/2000 7:33 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
I know a lot of Germans. I have a lot of admiration for their engineering skills. I want to stomp them FLAT
If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.
Bring em on!
Joe J.
Posted by Bill Beatty.
Other on team #71, Team Hammond, from Team Hammond.
Posted on 11/6/2000 8:08 AM MST
In Reply to: Gotta go with Germany on this one… posted by Joe Johnson on 11/5/2000 7:33 PM MST:
We have jointly built some systems with a company in Japan. Oh how I would love to get them on the field of the Competition.
Bill B
Posted by Matt Leese.
Other on team #73 from Edison Technical HS and Rochester Institute of Technology.
Posted on 11/6/2000 12:28 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
Ok, the way that I think FIRST should expand is not to the east or west but to the south. By this, I mean Latin and South America. There is already a Brazillian and further expansion in that direction is what is needed. First of all (bad pun), parts of Latin and South America are much closer than either Europe or Japan (noteably Mexico). It therefore would make it much easier for them to utilize the infastructure of FIRST. Also, Spanish happens to be much more widely known in the United States than European languages (excluding English) and Japanese. This makes the language barrier less of an issue. Also, increasing engineering in many of these countries will also help their economies, some of which are still developing. In general, while looking across oceans is sexy, I think the more practical place to look is south.
Matt
Posted by Andy Baker.
Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 11/6/2000 1:08 PM MST
In Reply to: Look South posted by Matt Leese on 11/6/2000 12:28 PM MST:
Matt has the most realistic answer.
Although Germany and Japan are attractive, Mexico is where we should focus our attention, I think.
First of all, many of our own companies’ plants are already there. We’re trying to get Delphi to start a team down there (Reynosa area), but we’ve still got some hoops to jump through.
Along with gobs of manufacturing sites, there are many good engineering schools in Mexico… and the Mexicans want a chance to prove that they are capable to compete against the Americans.
Andy B.
Posted by Kate Argenta.
Student on team #237, Sie-H2O-Bot, from Watertown High School.
Posted on 11/6/2000 2:00 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
I think it would be cool wiht FIRST represented Italy. My grandparents always talk about how wonderful it is. Having a team from there would be cool. The language thing might be a problem but if you really think about it, if we had other places that were involoved in FIRST and spoke different languages we could all learn a little bit of their language. ~Kate~
: Hi all, here is the question of the week:
: Question 11/5/00: What country would you like to see first represented by? We already have a canadian team and brazillian team. Also if FIRST expands how could the problem of language barriers be solved?
Posted by David Kelso. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Coach on team #131, C.H.A.O.S.-, from Central High School and OSRAM SYLVANIA/ Fleet .
Posted on 11/6/2000 4:35 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
As people answer this, maybe they can also say who owns their sponsor…OSRAM Sylvania (Team 131) is not owned by a little old lady from Pasadena but by Siemens, a German company.
Posted by Joe Johnson. [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]
Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 11/6/2000 7:49 PM MST
In Reply to: Who ‘owns’ your sponsor? posted by David Kelso on 11/6/2000 4:35 PM MST:
What do you folks think that GmbH business is all about after Robert Bosch?
There are MANY examples of FIRST teams sponsored by international companies.
Where does the Daimler in DaimlerChrysler come from?
Think about it.
Joe J.
Posted by S. Krussell.
Coach on team #349, Robahamas, from International Academy and Ford Motor Co…
Posted on 11/7/2000 5:07 PM MST
In Reply to: QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!! posted by Andy Grady on 11/5/2000 7:38 AM MST:
Team 349’s sponsor, Ford Motor company…and hey, our sponsorship includes Robert Bosch, Inc now too…is working on the logistics to have the first FIRST team from England. Ford is a large presence there, so it makes sense. It’s not that far a stretch. One of the Ford sister teams is in Kingman Arizona, home of the Ford proving grounds.