As many of you know, I compete in a robotics competition called FRC. What most of you don't know however, is what FRC and it's mother company FIRST are all about. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded by Dean Kamen *inventor of the segway* and Woodie Flowers in the late 80s. The program eventually evolved into something different from curriculums and textbooks. FIRST soon became about changing society as a whole to appreciate STEM fields and to understand that giving back to your species benefits everyone. FIRST has several branches, ranging from Elementary School to High School. I will mostly talk about the High School branch, known as FRC. FRC stands for FIRST Robotics Competition. FRC primarily deals with teaching kids how to function in an environment similar to the real world. Teams are given 6 weeks to design, program, and build a robot. Due to the costs associated with this, team must find sponsors. Getting sponsors isn't calling a company and asking for sponsorship, it's like getting sponsored in real life. It can takes anywhere from 1 day to several months to get a company to agree to sponsor you. Teams don't receive all the parts needed to build a robot, nor do they get a set of "possible" designs. They receive a kit of parts with some metal, the control system for the robot, and 2-3 sensors. Teams are then expected to design and build the robot by themselves. The game that the robots play changes every year, as do the rules. The rules book is normally 50+ pages long however. The intent of this is to get kids used to the rapidly changing environment of the real world, as well as to get them used to the thousands of regulations that companies must follow in some companies. Teams are encouraged to do outreach work, inspiring people outside of the FIRST community to work in STEM fields. The goal of FIRST is to change society as a whole, this includes people outside of the age group of FIRST competitions. Perhaps the most unique thing about FIRST is "gracious professionalism". Through gracious professionalism, teams are encouraged to help each other *helping new teams is HEAVILY encouraged* in many ways. From giving teams that have broken a part a replacement, to releasing all of a team's CAD files. Some Statistics FRC students are 9x more likely to get an internship in College FIRST operates in 60+ countries Over 300,000 Kids participate in FIRST Over 50,000 Mentors Participate in FIRST Over $19,000,000 in scholarships are available to people who participate in FIRST ALL REGIONAL EVENTS are FREE to attend for spectators For more info *or to find teams in your area* visit http://www3.usfirst.org/ If you're interested in mentoring a team, pm me for some links to help you get started. If you have any questions, please ASK!
Looks like you just copied and pasted a basic advertising message. Would probably benefit more by just making a simple post explaining what we can do and how it helps you, instead of the canned essay about saving the world.
It's not that I can participate to begin with, but: I've talked with Stalker on steam about this a while back, and I've looked it up and the thing seems interesting enough to me. If you actually have a functional family that will support your interests, go for it, it should be cool.
A lot of people where asking me about this on steam when i mentioned my robotics program, so I wanted a post o the forums that would make it easy for them to understand the program, as well as letting people who might not know about FIRST to get to see what it's about and how to get more information. EDIT: Also, just to make this clear, the post is more about FIRST as a whole than my team alone. My intention with this post was to spread info on what FIRST is and how it operates. If you wish to get more info on my team, pm me.
It's just incredibly uncharacteristic of anything I've ever seen you type, and feels out of place without context. Is there something you're looking for from us, or are you just really excited to talk about your program?
cough* cough* Yeah, I'm just really excited to talk about FIRST. Main reason for posting was because a lot of people outside of *or even in* the US don't seem to know about FIRST, and it's a program that, I feel, really deserves more attention. While it is continuing to grow, I'd like to do my part in helping it become an even bigger thing Also: wanted to let people who constantly get steam messages about my robotics program know more about what I'm talking about
Spreading word about our team in particular helps with this. I'd recommend also helping local teams... but no teams in Russia XD My team is M3, team 4592. We placed 4th in the florida regional, but lost to the top ranked team in the East Cost and #30 in the world . We managed to do this as a 2nd year team without CAD or custom machining, impressive considering all the teams ranked above us where at least 10 years old with the above resources and tons of resources. We've recently acquired free machining, and are teaching our mechanical team CAD. Expect great things next year
Seems really interesting. I think I'll read a bit more about it. You still want to kill every human being? I think we need a robot that raps over the knuckles of Komodo everytime he thinks pesimistic, even if that probably ends with the robot overheating due to Komos black soul. Anyway, I'll probably look into it and maybe I find a local team or something else. If I can do anything for your team just ask.
One thing that REALLY helps is following us on twitter *lots of sponsors look to see how many followers you have, as this is basically free advertising for them* https://twitter.com/M3Robo If you want to donate, pm me and I'll send you some info, even $20 helps
