{"id":5597,"date":"2014-03-15T18:26:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T22:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/?p=5597"},"modified":"2014-03-16T17:30:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-16T21:30:54","slug":"solidworks-opens-wpi-first-robotics-championship-frc-qualifying-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/2014\/03\/solidworks-opens-wpi-first-robotics-championship-frc-qualifying-event.html","title":{"rendered":"SolidWorks Opens WPI First Robotics Championship (FRC) Qualifying Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Marie<\/a><\/p>\n

First Robotics Championship (FRC) qualifying events exploded with excitement this weekend as high school teams prepared for their place in the District Events and the FRC World Championship in April. \u00a0Yesterday I opened the WPI District Qualifying Event<\/a> in Worcester, MA in front of 40 teams from New England.<\/p>\n

Earning a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute – \u00a0WPI has given me the opportunity to work with students all over the world. \u00a0But nowhere on earth is there more creative energy at 9 AM in the morning than at WPI\u2019s FRC field.<\/p>\n

Being part of the SolidWorks Education community<\/a> and the largest 3DExperience software company in the world, Dassault Systemes, allows me an opportunity to work with FIRST Robotics teams.\u00a0This year, SolidWorks achieved FIRST Crown Sponsorship by supplying hundreds of FIRST teams SolidWorks software, tutorials and the ever important FRC Kit of Parts.<\/p>\n

I asked teams to do some more homework – simply share what they have done with robots and what they have learned with a little girl. \u00a0WPI has done a great job recruiting women into engineering – but it is all our responsibility to start earlier. \u00a0 \u00a0Even toddlers understand simple machines, a lever, a wheel, and pushing a button on the iPad.<\/p>\n

\"Judges<\/a><\/p>\n

The toughest job at this event is to sit at the judges table. \u00a0Once again, Dean Cook<\/strong> from SolidWorks took on this difficult role to judge these talented teams. \u00a0I got to visit with WPI\u2019s robotics director\u00a0Ken Stafford.<\/strong> \u00a0Assistant Director, \u00a0Colleen Shaver<\/strong> skillfully managed this event.<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/a><\/p>\n

My friend Randy<\/strong>, now lead inspector for the WPI event is from Northeastern University. \u00a0Northeastern is also hosting a FRC qualifying event<\/a> March 28\/29 in Boston.<\/p>\n

FIRST is not about 1 winner. \u00a0It is about working as a team, forming strategic alliances, gracious professionalism, and celebrating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).<\/p>\n

\"FIRST<\/a><\/p>\n

As FIRST has grown, so too have the college scholarships awarded to FIRST students. \u00a0In four weeks, at the Boston First Regional, one lucky student will receive the WPI\/SolidWorks scholarship.<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

It is great to walk around the arena and have students share with me how much they love SolidWorks. \u00a0I got a great pin from Team 811, The Cardinals<\/a>, \u00a0Bishop Guertin High School. \u00a0Where else would you get a rapid prototype team pin and Pi pin on Pi day (3.14 – March 14)?<\/p>\n

\"Marie<\/a><\/p>\n

I also have to thank Brad Miller<\/strong> \u00a0and his student TJ Watson<\/strong> (busy as a referee) who helped connect me with FIRST to develop a great kit of parts and the Kitbot. \u00a0I know there will be more great projects with WPI in the future.<\/p>\n

I also got a chance to talk to mentors, teachers and students throughout the day on how they used SolidWorks to design their robot. \u00a0The best place to learn is in the Robot Pits.<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

First I talked to FRC 157<\/a> Aztechs.\u00a0 I have visited their school a lot \u2013 great machine shop!<\/p>\n

\"FRC238<\/a><\/p>\n

Next it was FRC238 CruisinCrusaders<\/a>.\u00a0 Great to see so many girls on their team.<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

With FRC 1100 T Hawks<\/a>, I got to share some ideas about their design with their mentors<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

and some future great engineers.<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

FRC 2423 KwarQs<\/a> gave a great illustration of their 1\/3 scaled mechanism they design in SolidWorks to prove their concept of perfectly throwing a ball \u2013 before building the full scale model.\u00a0 Worked great.<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

The best part was talking to the students about great engineering colleges they would be attending in the Fall.\u00a0 One mentor, \u00a0Campbell<\/strong>, now an engineering student at University of Maine, \u00a0came all the way to WPI to help out.<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

Team 3205<\/a> <\/b>The Patriots loved using SolidWorks.<\/p>\n

\"FRC<\/a><\/p>\n

One of their designer was proud to show me his SolidWorks NAO robot pin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"FRC<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago I met young team, FRC 1735<\/a> Green Reapers, their mentors got to show me how the team has grown with great wiring and assembly \u2013 their robot looked really neat.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2202\"<\/a><\/p>\n

FRC 1735 is also mentored by WPI, \u00a0You can’t miss them in their green capes.<\/p>\n

Years ago when WPI started with FIRST, FRC 190<\/a> competed in the first FRC event that has become legendary. They continue to grow and support many teams.<\/p>\n

I can’t wait to go to the next FRC event. \u00a0Find out more about SolidWorks FIRST Sponsorship at www.SolidWorks.com\/FIRST. \u00a0Thank you WPI! \u00a0Marie<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Robotics Championship (FRC) qualifying events exploded with excitement this weekend as high school teams prepared for their place in the District Events and the FRC World Championship in April. \u00a0Yesterday I opened the WPI District Qualifying Event in Worcester,<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4183,5203,4015,5219,5206,5211],"tags":[3930,4545,4546,4549,4447,5379,3931,4219],"class_list":["post-5597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cad-teacher","category-current-affairs","category-mechanical-engineering","category-robotics-2","category-stem-teacher","category-technology-2","tag-cad","tag-competition","tag-first","tag-frc","tag-robotics","tag-scholarship","tag-solidworks","tag-wpi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5597"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5641,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597\/revisions\/5641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/teacher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}