I agree, funding is probably the greatest hurdle for a team, especially a new one.
Back in '96, there were only two schools from California, and both came from the SF Bay Area. The majority of the schools were indeed from the East Coast, around urban centers. Now, there are quite a few coming from the SF Bay Area. Why? With large universities like UC Berkeley or Stanford nearby, and the multitude of hi-tech companies in the Silicon Valley it's much easier for schools to find sponsors and mentors, especially if they are starting out.
What FIRST should do to encourage other schools in more remote regions to participate is to perhaps initiate some form of partnership program between business sponsors with contacts in those respective regions. Try to encourage nearby colleges or universities to join in to provide mentors or even funding.
Or, it could be more of a grass-roots operation-not sure how that will work, as each city or town has its way of going about its business. However, as long as people perceive something like this to be worth it for their kids, then they'll find some way.
I participated in my school team for the 1996 FIRST competition, and along with our applied engineering instructor and our mentor and about ten other students. It certainly made my second semester of senior year more than just ditching classes for volleyball in the sun. Our team was probably the tiniest in comparison with the other schools who showed up with 30-40 students, half a dozen or more mentors. It was our first robotics competition (first large scale competition at that), so we were also starting out from scratch.
Even though I was no budding engineer, had no clue as to how to build a robot, the experience proved that there was much more involved than the actual science of robotics. Rather, a great deal of our activities centered around logistics, such as contacting and securing sponsors, working out schedules, ordering and keeping track of work equipment such as the rendering computers and parts. Man, installing WinNT 3.5something and then 3D Studios on a P-75 w/32MB RAM was a royal pain in the ass, but that was the state of the art computer in our lab at the time. Needed it for the computer rendering part of the competition. Since our team was so small, every brain and pair of hands was put to work. Because of that, everyone needed to learn every aspect involved in the operation.
Our mentor, Bob, kicked ass. At the time, he was a graduate student doing his thesis on robotics at a nearby university. He never acted authoritarian, rather more like another high school student:) Our robot was peanuts for him, but his humor and expertise really encouraged us to think and work together.
The week of competition was memorable. Our robot wasn't fancy or professional-looking in comparison with the others, but it was the result of our own hard work. Our team was dwarfed by most of the participating teams (some teams'cheerleading sections outnumbered our entire team). We didn't have any fancy setup, just our robot. Never felt happier seeing so many people enthusiastic and cheering each other on. It was the first time that I saw the 'macarena' done in mass:) (either it hadn't made it to the West Coast, or more likely, everyone in our team didn't get out much in the last few months. Nonetheless, it sure looked goofy).
The costs of entering the competition was definitely high, and without support from the sponsors, there was no way a team can buy the equipment and parts and show up to Florida for the competition. Our school is located in the SF Bay Area, but it was still difficult getting enough support for even a ten person team then. If this was hard, then it would probably be downright impossible for schools in less developed areas to participate. I haven't been following the competition since 1997, so maybe the FIRST organizers found ways to encourage more schools to join in.
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I agree, funding is probably the greatest hurdle for a team, especially a new one.
Back in '96, there were only two schools from California, and both came from the SF Bay Area. The majority of the schools were indeed from the East Coast, around urban centers. Now, there are quite a few coming from the SF Bay Area. Why? With large universities like UC Berkeley or Stanford nearby, and the multitude of hi-tech companies in the Silicon Valley it's much easier for schools to find sponsors and mentors, especially if they are starting out.
What FIRST should do to encourage other schools in more remote regions to participate is to perhaps initiate some form of partnership program between business sponsors with contacts in those respective regions. Try to encourage nearby colleges or universities to join in to provide mentors or even funding.
Or, it could be more of a grass-roots operation-not sure how that will work, as each city or town has its way of going about its business. However, as long as people perceive something like this to be worth it for their kids, then they'll find some way.
I participated in my school team for the 1996 FIRST competition, and along with our applied engineering instructor and our mentor and about ten other students. It certainly made my second semester of senior year more than just ditching classes for volleyball in the sun. Our team was probably the tiniest in comparison with the other schools who showed up with 30-40 students, half a dozen or more mentors. It was our first robotics competition (first large scale competition at that), so we were also starting out from scratch.
:) Our robot was peanuts for him, but his humor and expertise really encouraged us to think and work together.
:) (either it hadn't made it to the West Coast, or more likely, everyone in our team didn't get out much in the last few months. Nonetheless, it sure looked goofy).
Even though I was no budding engineer, had no clue as to how to build a robot, the experience proved that there was much more involved than the actual science of robotics. Rather, a great deal of our activities centered around logistics, such as contacting and securing sponsors, working out schedules, ordering and keeping track of work equipment such as the rendering computers and parts. Man, installing WinNT 3.5something and then 3D Studios on a P-75 w/32MB RAM was a royal pain in the ass, but that was the state of the art computer in our lab at the time. Needed it for the computer rendering part of the competition. Since our team was so small, every brain and pair of hands was put to work. Because of that, everyone needed to learn every aspect involved in the operation.
Our mentor, Bob, kicked ass. At the time, he was a graduate student doing his thesis on robotics at a nearby university. He never acted authoritarian, rather more like another high school student
The week of competition was memorable. Our robot wasn't fancy or professional-looking in comparison with the others, but it was the result of our own hard work. Our team was dwarfed by most of the participating teams (some teams'cheerleading sections outnumbered our entire team). We didn't have any fancy setup, just our robot. Never felt happier seeing so many people enthusiastic and cheering each other on. It was the first time that I saw the 'macarena' done in mass
The costs of entering the competition was definitely high, and without support from the sponsors, there was no way a team can buy the equipment and parts and show up to Florida for the competition. Our school is located in the SF Bay Area, but it was still difficult getting enough support for even a ten person team then. If this was hard, then it would probably be downright impossible for schools in less developed areas to participate. I haven't been following the competition since 1997, so maybe the FIRST organizers found ways to encourage more schools to join in.