One of the most important part of FIRST is supporting students after graduation. One of the ways they accomplish this is by creating relationships with colleges and universities. One of the sponsors for ROBOTICON Tampa Bay is a fairly new university in the area: Florida Polytechnic University.
Splintered from the University of South Florida, the new school has a different take on the educational process. Rather than forcing students to fulfill all of their basic requirements before taking classes in their chosen field, students get to take classes almost immediately. The setup of the school has even attracted our own Daniele.
We spoke with Holly Pafford, who works as a tour guide for the admissions department, about the unique aspects of the school.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.
