College level teams

[devinc]

I had a quick question. I currently work for a company that teaches educational robotics to k-college students and all the staff is composed of college students. I am the only one with competition experience and we are currently getting 6 FTC teams ready for competition and I just threw out the idea of “lets make a VEX college team.” Surprisingly enough the owner loved the idea and cant wait to get started but my main concern is, do we all need to be from the same college in order to be one large team? Between all of us, there is 4 different schools. We are looking at competing in the 2013-2014 season and I could not find an appropriate section to post this in. Does anyone happen to know the answer? Thanks everyone.

[bobsalive]

From the College Challenge (Sack Attack Manual Appendix F):

We want to see Colleges and Universities from around the world register for the VRC College Challenge to face off in head-to-head competition. While colleges are not limited to one team and while a team can consist of students from multiple colleges we hope that each team is identified with and proudly represents one (1) post-secondary institution. (i.e. “Clarkson University” vs. “UC Santa Barbara”). Of course, college level club teams and mixed composition teams are also encouraged to participate!

The short answer to your question should be yes

(A recent example is NAR, a new college team made up of students in the US and Canada, all very experienced people who have come from other teams and merged together to make one super-team… I don’t think any of them go to the same universities).

[devinc]

Thank you for the quick response. I will let the others know so that we can hopefully get our team off the ground and get out there competing.

[Totally_Generic_Name]

Really? How does that work for funding, building and design? I was thinking of doing something like that between three colleges here in BC, but just starting a team was complicated enough.

[Telemascope]

We pay for everything ourselves. NAR has found a few supporting sponsors such as Thermodyne who has supplied us with some AWESOME shipping cases (Thanks Thermodyne!).

I would say that right now, 90% of team expenses are out of members pockets.

As for design and building, that is an entirely different story. We use skype and facebook as communication tools and google drive for CAD sharing. There will be 3-4 robots built between the three major areas (Philadelphia, Ontario, and Orlando). Lots of parts will be mailed back and forth as some people have access to tools that others don’t. Most machining will happen in Orlando while part painting will happen in Ontario. Philadelphia has proved to be a great “middle ground” for shipping purposes. Helps keep expenses down for all of us.

-Chuck

Sounds like a complicated operation, not to mention expensive. Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with for worlds!

[spen]

Team SEAM is made up of three Colleges in Georgia Currently.

[devinc]

Hopefully we start our college team. All of us are really excited for it. We get to see all the students compete and the staff really wants to get into it and I want to get back into it.