Top 50 Engineering Schools Involvement

FIRST General Forum
1

I don’t know where to put this so im just going to throw this in the general forum
I found a list of the top 50 engineering schools from USNEWS…

I am trying to make a point that most if not all of these top fifty are, or have at some time been involved with FIRST (be it a scholarship offering, involvement with a regional, involvement with a team, or anything else that might be remote that I have not listed here)

Any incite any specific college (especially the University of Illinois I can’t find anything on them) would be greatly appreciated and when/if this project get’s finish I will be glad to share this with any/all people that would like this…

here is the list:

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  2. Stanford University (CA)
  3. University of California–Berkeley
  4. University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
  5. Georgia Institute of Technology
  6. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
  7. California Institute of Technology
  8. University of Southern California
  9. Purdue University–West Lafayette (IN)
    University of Texas–Austin
  10. Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
    Cornell University (NY)
    University of California–San Diego
  11. Texas A&M University–College Station
  12. University of Wisconsin–Madison
  13. University of Maryland–College Park
  14. Harvard University (MA)
  15. Princeton University (NJ)
  16. Northwestern University (IL)
    University of California–Los Angeles
  17. Penn State University–University Park
  18. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
    University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
  19. Ohio State University
    University of California–Santa Barbara
  20. Columbia University (Fu Foundation) (NY)
    University of Florida
    Virginia Tech
  21. University of Pennsylvania
    University of Washington
  22. Rice University (TX)
  23. North Carolina State University
  24. Duke University (NC)
    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY)
  25. Washington University in St. Louis
  26. University of California–Davis
  27. University of Colorado–Boulder
  28. Case Western Reserve University (OH)
    Iowa State University
    University of Virginia
  29. Lehigh University (PA)
    Yale University (CT)
  30. Rutgers State University–New Brunswick (NJ)
  31. Dartmouth College (Thayer) (NH)
    University of Delaware
    University of Rochester (NY)
  32. Brown University (RI)
    University of California–Irvine
    University of Massachusetts–Amherst
  33. Boston University

thx in advance…

2

The Ohio State University currently mentors three teams and plans to expand next year to at least one more.

We additionally mentor a number of smaller LEGO league teams. The first LEGO league team we mentored won the state championship that year.

Take a look at:

http://www.osufirst.org/

for a little bit more information. Our three teams are 677, 1014, and 1317. 677 is a private all-girls school. 1014 is a public school. 1317 is a group of home-school students.

We also started team 128 in 1996. We left 128 in 2000; they have been working on their own ever since.

From what I understand, we were one of the first universities to get involved.

Using our 60+ OSU mentors, 75+ high school students, some of the methods inspired by some of the graduate-level controls classes here at OSU as well as the machinery available on campus, we were able to win the Team Spirit Award (677), the Engineering Inspiration Award (1014), and the Rookie Inspiration Award (1317). In the most recent past, we’ve won the Rookie All-Star Award (1014) and the Kleiner-Perkins-Claufield Entrepreneurship <sp!!> Award (677).

Our Dublin students also have a web page available for their team (team 1014):

http://www.dublinrobotics.com/

They have been involved for 2 years. Next year they’re getting their industrial design class involved to bid on and build a crate for the robot that year. It is a partnership currently between two schools, but very soon a third school in the district will be started. It is not decided whether the partnership will continue or if another team will start. While the school provides no monetary resources to the team, they provide space and some machinery.

Team 677 was startedin 2000 and team 1317 started this year.

OSU provides mentors, more advanced machining capabilities, some money when available, and often space and lots of time.

3

Oh! And OSU does offer engineering scholarships to high school students who have been involved in FIRST (not just with OSU teams, but with any FIRST team). Information about this scholarship is available on FIRST’s website.

Additionally, OSU’s first-year engineering honors program:

http://feh.eng.ohio-state.edu/

involves a three quarter sequence that builds up to building small completely autonomous 9" x 9" x 12" robots that complete some task. These students are given $130 in budget and a microcontroller and otherwise build the whole robot from scratch. There is a great deal of engineering that goes on here, involving plenty of report writing and presentation giving. It all ends with a large competition to see whose robot does best. The robots are built in 4 person teams. There are 57 teams this year involved with this program.

There is also an additional honors design project that involves (this year) building a raquet-ball shooter that aims to score through basketball hoops consistently. Last year a frisbee thrower was built. The year before that an air-powered vehicle was built.

Note that these two projects are not simply engineering related. Throughout all three quarters, every week the engineering, physics, and math instructional staff as well as the engineering advisors sit down to discuss the previous week’s events and plan for collaboration during the next week. It is an integrated program aimed to optimize the entire first-year engineering experience.

For students who do not take the honors option, a small roller coaster is built. Students have more options for math and physics if they elect to take this option, but thus there is less collaboration between groups.

This first-year program not only provides a great deal of publicity for FIRST and is a great place for recruitment, but most of the FIRST leadership currently aids in the instruction of the first-year engineering program.

4

The University of Rochester is not particularly involved with FIRST. They did give some amount of money (a relatively small amount) to team 340 one year but I think that’s the extent of their involvement.

Matt

5

To further what Ted mentioned…

Ohio State also hosts/sponsors a fall seminar series in conjunction with the local Columbus teams (on the order of 10, though only 5-7 are typically active at functions like this). The local mentors meet and divide up a series of workshops (things like controls, electrical basics, mechanical basics, animation, design philosophy, etc.), then present them over the course of 2 Saturdays to all the teams in the area.

Additionally OSU also hosts/sponsors a FIRST-sanctioned local kickoff, complete with a course and the chance for teams to pick up their kits.

On a slightly different note…

If your end aim is to try to convince a school to participate in FIRST, a thread like this will be a big help. While trying to drum up support at the college level for our activities, I brought in a similar list I made by just scanning through a program and the scholarship list. OSU, like many schools, have identified so called “peer” institutions - schools we think we compare well with in terms of size, research dollars, industry/academic reputation, things like that. I listed how those schools were involved (a la teams, regionals, and scholarships) and listed what (fairly little) support we were getting from the university at the time. The one dean made my point for me when she rightly pointed out - “so all these schools give scholarships and we don’t”. Something like that can be a pretty powerful tool - colleges are just as competitive as businesses.

6

Especially if the schools are rival state schools you can put a lot of pressure. That what our team did to the state schools and now there are going to be 3 new scholarships.

I’m a little dissapointed my college (K-State) didn’t make the top 50. It is definitely in the top ten for value and the college overall for non-engineers is amazing. Most truman, goldwater, rhodes scholars from a public university, at least something like that. And a decent football team, not going to fight with the osu fans. Had to put my plug in. I want all the FIRST kid I can get so I can get help in possibly starting a team next year.

As for the university. They began offering a 12,000 dollar scholarship (3000 for 4 year) this year. I am setting up a FIRST booth for Open House and hopefully I’ll get some interest.

KC is having a regional next year so that will cut cost for all us midwestern teams.

EDIT: OH I see! This list is more the best graduate school type list. K-State has one of the best undergraduate engineering programs in the country. We just go everywhere else to get our PhD’s.

Look here to see what they are ranked on: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engrank_brief.php

7

i didn’t view it as the best graduate programs…that is not what it indicated to me…im not trying to leave any school out or discredit someone, I just wanted to get some information together some that I have more material to kind of put pressure on my school (USF) to do more…

8

Yeah I realize this. I just thought K-State would make the top 50 for undergraduate engineering programs so I had to look. I think there is an undergraduate list but they make you pay to get more than the top 3.

9

Kettering University gives away like 20-30 scholarships to FIRST students. We also hold an offseason competition (Kettering Kickoff) every September.

In addition, Team 70 (Auto City Bandits) is supposed to be sponsored and mentored by KU, but I hear that now even though their shirts still say Kettering, Team 70 actually gets NOTHING from the school. I think this is a travesty, even with all of the rest of involvement the school has. (Incedently, I plan on having a talk with the Vice-President about this next week).

Also, My goal this semester is for Kettering to start a college network for FIRST alumni/mentors. Details to be worked out, again once I get back from Spring Break.

::Edit:: Sorry. Kettering is on the other list (Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, not PhD’s.)

10

Georgia Tech is now heavily involved with the FIRST program. Our group, GT FIRST, has become the hub for all the Georgia teams. We host a 10 week program, Technology Enrichment Sessions, in the fall for all GA teams to help prepare them for the season ahead ending with a final mini-competition. We host the GA remote kickoff and a scrimmage before shipping. We have a help hotline for area teams, help find sponsors for those teams that need it, do presentations at conventions all over Georgia. We also help on the Regional planning committee and helped bring the Championship to Atlanta.

Georgia Tech has also started sponsoring the Peachtree Regional event and help with the Championship. We help recruit volunteers for the Georgia event and mentors for new teams.

We also directly mentor Wheeler High school, the 2004 Peachtree Regional champions and Chairman’s award winners, and provide funds for the running of the team.

All in all we are involved in many levels of the FIRST organization in Georgia and one of the great parts is that most of this is run by undergraduate students which gives us a great opportunity to make a difference and meet some great people. Hopefully we will continue to grow GT FIRST and be able to continue growing FIRST in GA. If anyone has any questions about what we do here at GT FIRST, feel free to PM me or send me an email.

11

cool…i knew GT was involved w/ peachtree and 1002, but other than that i did not know their involvement, thanks for bringing this to my attention…hopefully i can find out about more colleges that do this kind of stuff I do no know about.

12

RIT’s not on the list (we have virtually no graduate programs) but I can tell you a little about RIT’s involvement in FIRST.

RIT directly sponsors team 73 along with Bausch & Lomb. RIT also provided mentors for the Charles Finney Schools team (I don’t remember the team number but they are a rookie). This past year RIT hosted a remote kickoff. RIT is also one of the sponsors of and the host of the Finger Lakes Regional which is coming to Rochester next year. RIT students and faculty have been involved in the planning of the regional competition. We’re still trying to convince RIT to give scholarhips to FIRST participants but it should be merely finding the right person to talk to at this point.

Matt

13

Purdue University is heavily involved in FIRST.

The student organization, Purdue FIRST Programs, does the following to support FIRST:

  • Mentors 5 local FLL teams
  • Manages and provides all technical support for team 461
  • Is in the process of getting the go ahead to host a regional in 2005.

In addition, Purdue University offers one $30,000(?) scholarship, distributed over 4 years, for 1 high school student involved in FIRST that attends Purdue University.

I could ramble, but that’s the concise list. Let me know if you need anything else.

Matt

14

I can help a bit with two schools: Iowa St. and MIT.
Iowa St. as far as I know gives no support at this time to any program. However, there are a number of former students from teams 167, 525, and 967 that attend. Some of these students are attempting to get a team started at the local high school with support from ISU. As far as I know, they are in the process of getting funds for registration. However, I have not got a chance to talk with any of them in depth recently, so I am not 100% sure. The only thing that I know of from MIT is that they have an IvenTeam thing. This is not related to FIRST at all though. Basically, a high school applies for a grant to invent something that will benefit a community or a person. A $10000 grant is given to 10 schools across the nation to build this. Our team applied and recieved one of these grants (that is how I know of it). For more info the following is a link with this year’s schools and their projects: http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/InvenTeam/inventeam_04_pr.html
Hope this helped some,
Ryan Miller

15

MIT is a sponsor of team 97, though i’m not sure how involved they are.

http://web.mit.edu/first/www/

16

Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has an underground FIRST program completely run by students supporting several FIRST and FLL Teams. We’re still working on getting recognition and offering scholarships to FIRST students.

17

Well, I know for a fact that WPI, which was ranked as the #51 Undergraduate Engineering Program, directly sponsors one team, and has been responsable for starting over a half-dozen others.

WPI also offers two full-tuition scholarships every year, each valued at over $100,000.

18

One of our Mentors went to MIT.

19

UCSD mentors team 812…btw yes there is another list of undergraduate engineering programs without phd’s for u.s…i believe it is also put out by us news and world report.

For 2003 engineering(overall) rankings were:
#1 Rose-Hulman
#2 Harvey Mudd
#3 Cooper Union
#4 us air force acad.
#5 us military acad.

Also for mechanical engineering:
#1 Rose-Hulman
#2 Harvey Mudd
#3 Cooper Union
#4 Kettering
#5 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
RIT
us military acad.

20

I can elaborate a bit more on this. Iowa State is very heavily involved with FLL. In fact, we host the Iowa regional here at ISU. This last regional we had 42 FLL teams joining us here for the competition. We expect that number to increase next year. As far as a robotics team, we do not have a team from Ames at this time, but I am working to correct that, partially because I miss it so much and want to mentor a team. I am a former member of 525 and have several other teammates that are working with me to see if we can get a team started soon.