It's the moooost wonderful tiiiiiime of the yeeeeaaaar!
No, I'm not talking about the holidays... I'm talking about ROBOTS! Now is the time of year many FIRST FRC (First Robotics Competition) teams are gearing up for the upcoming season before the new challenge is announced on January 9th. The teams are busy training up new students, planning which events to go to, and making sure all the funds are in place for build season and competition travel. It's an exciting time leading up to build season.
If you've never heard of FIRST robotics, its a global non-profit organization that creates 4 different levels of competitions each year. Students of all ages are given a problem to solve and they have to come up with a robot design to solve that problem or complete certain tasks. But FIRST is more than robots and engineering. Teams also come up with a team identity. Team spirit is STRONGLY encouraged. Students at higher levels of the program are urged to mentor kids at lower levels. Many of the awards given at competitions involve more than just building a cool robot that does its job well - they also must demonstrate teamwork and involvement in their surrounding communities. FIRST, to many, is much more than just robots: it's a LIFESTYLE! This is just a quick synopsis of what they do, but if you want to learn more, you can go to www.firstinspires.org and read more about what FIRST is all about.
FIRST robotics is a HUGE part of why I became an engineer. My high school team was the first place I really felt like we were changing the world (even if we weren't).
I was a senior in high school when I first found out about my high school's robotics team. I had just finished taking an AP Computer Science class the previous year and discovered I had a love for programming. It came so easily to me and the possibilities seemed endless. An acquaintance at the time reached out to me around this time and asked if I wanted to join the team. I went to a couple of meetings, dragging the boyfriend along like your typical naïve high school girl, and was instantly hooked. HERE I could actually take what I learned in school and make something cool out of it! I learned a lot about documenting designs as well as trial and error. I also learned that scissor lifts are definitely NOT practical with an original kit of parts at all and near impossible to build properly without being either too tight to expand easily or too loose to stand up straight. They sure do look cool though!
Our year was likely the last year it existed at our school. Tales were told of when our school used to have a larger team years and years ago that competed in the "big kid" leagues. We all wanted to see our team achieve SOMETHING like the glory days of the team it used to be. We were just a group of kids that wanted to build robots and change the world.
But after high school was over I fell out of the loop. Since our team had never been to a competition, I had no clue just how big FIRST really was... until I met someone who did.
Through some fluke of fate I wound up dating someone that had been mentoring an FRC team for, at the time, six years out in Lubbock, TX while he was attending Texas Tech. I tagged along with him to a regional competition in Dallas one year and was once again infatuated with the energy and enthusiasm that FIRST creates. Once I saw the huge amount of impact that FIRST had in these students lives I HAD to get involved. The next year I volunteered at the event. All I did was help reset the field, but it was the coolest chance to be up close and personal with the robots and the students. Watch them talk strategy with their teammates and alliance partners, see the pride in their faces, and even a hint of nervousness in the drive teams. It was an infectious atmosphere that I really wanted to be a part of. I've been volunteering at regional events ever since (sometimes running on nothing but adrenaline, caffeine, a TON of team spirit, and sometimes jelly beans)!
Now I'm mentoring FRC Team 2655: The Flying PlatyPI (pi...get it?) and it has been amazing watching and learning along side these amazing students. I'm watching some of them develop the same love for programming and helping promote STEM as I had in my high school years. It's cool to watch the kids grow even over these short 5 months I've been with them so far. I love every second of it!
My involvement with FIRST keeps growing each year. The more I get involved, the more rewarding it becomes. My hope is that each student that comes through the FIRST program will eventually pursue a STEM career or a career in educating other young minds and inspiring others to do more than just the daily grind. Volunteering with FIRST is one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in my life, and in the coming months, I want to share that passion with as many people as possible.
This blog post is part of a series about FIRST robotics and the impact that ADI has on teams of students across the country and the world. Stay tuned for more posts during the FRC build season and competition season, culminating with coverage of the FIRST World Championships in St Louis in April 2016! Follow the conversation about FIRST with the hashtags omgrobots and morethanrobots on all social media platforms.
