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F.I.R.S.T. Robotics today

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aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
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Little switch for me today: instead of driving, I'm running the pit crew here at the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Regional in NJ.

So far we've fixed several busted 'bots and modified some parts to work better (I have a fairly decent machine shop at my disposal).
We have about 37 teams and each team has around 20 members so lots going on.

If you ever worry about "kids today", you need to to this before despairing too much.
Great event and the kids are excellent.
Wish I had this when I was a kid.

Live streaming to the event is here:

https://robotics.arc.nasa.gov/events/livestream/mtolive.php
 
aeronca65t said:
If you ever worry about "kids today", you need to to this before despairing too much.
Click to expand...

I only worry about the kids who don't have that (or any) structure - too many of them I'm afraid. This kind of thing is great for giving kids structure and focus. Sounds like a lot of fun!
 
That was really cool Nial! I wish more of that was present around the country. One of my grandsons collage courses, he's taking up mechanical engineering, has a contest a couple times a year where everyone has to design and build a self powered, radio controlled moving object of some sort. Their graded on ingenuity, operation complexity and speed. Amazing what some of these kids built out of nothing. Highly intelligent individuals! PJ
 
F.I.R.S.T. is in about 500 high school nationwide. But there are about 22,000 high schools. Our goal is to get into 5000 schools in the next five years.

This program works especially well with "troubled" high schools or low-performing urban schools. Several of my students started a team in a Newark, NJ high school while they attended NJIT....the kids in that team did well and really "latched on" to stuff like this. It's like sports for "geeks".

25% of all the kids who apply to MIT and have been on a FIRST team are accepted.
Non-FIRST applicants to MIT have a 10% acceptance rate.

We need more STEM in school.......good for the country, breaks through a lot of barriers and can really make a difference!
 
My daughters school has a robotics club in the H.S. and in 7th and 8th grade they all have one semester of "robotics". She loved her first semester!
 
I can not say enough good things about FIRST robotics. My oldest (now 27) was on a team in HS, Had a lot of fun and had a great time while learning alot. He now is an engineer for a company that builds condensers for our nuclear subs while finishing his masters. Great programs like this and great teachers (thanks Nial) produce great kids.
 
George:

I saw the Pascack Pi-oneers team here today (that's Monvale....right?)
I remember when they were first starting up (around 2001 or so). They came to our KickOff meeting at CCM.

By the way, I'm going to try to make it to Britfest again this year. It's May 4th.
 
Close..Montville (Mustangs?) I think my son was involved in 02-04. Club is so popular that it is going to be a regular class next year. Just in time for my youngest(now 16). Brifest is on my calender, Hope to see you there. George
 
Thanks that is pretty neat, both the machines and what the whole thing appears to be doing for all the people involved. My neighbor has sponsored a high school electric car racing team for several years. I've been out to the 1/2 mile paved track here locally, fun to watch vast differences in performance between teams.
 
Nial, just checked back in, see the fans and machines are still going strong. The carts look fun, these are more distance, endurance.


1.jpg
 
Nial
Will you be doing FIRST Robotics again this year? My daughter is now a Sophomore and will be competing again this year. They leave tomorrow for Flagstaff, Az for the Arizona a North regional and Go to UC Davis in two weeks for another competition. I would incourage all students to get involved, it has been a great learning experience for her! Here is this year's competition.

Paul
 
Nial hasn't been around due to myriad of personal reasons, but I'll email this thread to him and maybe he'll pop in briefing to discuss.
 
Thanks Basil I forgot about that.
P
If anyone else has kids competing I would love to here how the experience has been for them.
 
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