University Participation In First Wpi's Experience

WPI has entered the FIRST Competition every year since its inception and continues to strongly support the contest precisely because the philosophy is critically important to high school students in our technological society. A number of organizational models have been used in attempts to effectively involve the university community as well a corporate sponsors and high school students and faculty. Every entry resulted in a competitive robot, excellent high school team, and successful performance. The highest place finish was a second place and one honor, the Creative Design Award, was achieved. Integration of the FIRST effort into the university community, especially faculty and student involvement, has proved difficult. Many of the difficulties have been overcome so that the WPI experience may provide useful experience for other universities.