My FIRST Robotics experience

          Last week, I went to Robotics Competition in which the high school students, ranging from 8th grade to 12th grade were participating. It was a nice experience to see how productive these kids are in exercising their creativeness. My son, who is a 10th grader, has been part of a robotics club of his school. I was watching them in the competition hall and happy to see them engaged in a good work rather than slogging around in some junk stuffs.

          The kids were engaging themselves in brain storming whenever something goes wrong. They field their robots and control them through wired or wireless, mostly wireless, controls. One of the team member maneuvers the robot to demonstrate its capabilities. Generally, there will be two teams competing against each other. The judge panel, randomly picked from the other teams, watches the moves and skills and awards scores. The scoring and evaluation procedures are stipulated by FIRST (FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a non-profit organization that promotes these science and technological events.

          I know all these boys had lot to study for their next day class. Although they were running out of time, they were still patient and doing their job pretty good. Everyone in the team is really great, in the sense; these kids spend their time very productively. Hats off to them!

          Not only the children - the parents and elders too were very enthusiastic and showing a great amount involvement. Right from transporting the students and robots, hosting and organizing the events and judging the robots and the teams, and many more responsibilities were shouldered by them.

          When I visited India last time, I saw some cricket clubs organizing neatly in a professional manner. Are there any such clubs in academic lines too, such as technology and science clubs or Math Olympics or Music and entertainment clubs? Please write about them and educate us.

Are there any events or chain of events conducted in these lines in any part of India?

Can we, in India, also start seeing these kinds of private non-profit organizations’?

I wish I see the parallels in India nowadays. I might not have seen during my childhood days.

Website references:
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc/content.aspx?id=14664