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Slashdot Goes to the FIRST Robotics Competition (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the machines-are-getting-smarter-and-stronger-every-day dept.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) has robot competitions all over the United States. FIRST was founded by inventor Dean Kamen. According to Wikipedia he has said that the FIRST competition is the invention he is most proud of, and he predicts that the 1 million students who have taken part in the contests so far will be responsible for some significant technological advances in years to come. In any case, Robert Rozeboom (samzenpus) was at the Michigan FIRST championship with camcorder in hand, and brought back some great shots of robots at work -- or maybe play. They fired off volleys of Frisbee-like discs, ran into each other, and climbed metal pyramids, either independently or under the control of their human masters. There was a pretty good crowd in the stands, too, to cheer on the robots. Or more likely, to cheer on the robots' human masters, since we're not yet at the point where robot masters invite their robot friends to competitions where they show off their humans.

2 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FIRST post by Dins · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure this is not the "first" robotics competition, I don't care how loudly you shout it.

    I mean, I don't RTFA any more than the next guy, but it's in the very first line of the summary:

    "FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)"

    Going to assuming you were being snarky...

  2. Re:High School Students by i+kan+reed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FIRST was probably responsible for 90% of my most useful education in highschool. It was that and calculus. Learning by making real things produces far, far better results.

    Learning about torque in a (sadly) typical high-school physics class: memorize formula and plug values into formula for test.
    Learning about torque in FIRST club: use torque calculations through various gear ratios to calculate how fast you can get up a ramp and beat the other robots there. You see the value, because you use the knowledge to make something.

    Normal schooling in the U.S. seems like an attempt to disconnect knowledge from its value.