Challenge Accepted!

FIRST Tech Challenge participants and teams rise to the challenge each season. At Kickoff in September, they are given a game challenge, and they get right to work tackling the problem with creativity, innovation, and ingenuity. The process they go through is a vital skill in robot-building and in life.

When encountering a problem, be it a professional, personal, or academic challenge, the first step to finding a resolution is understanding the problem. Look at it from all angles, measure it, poke at it, ask questions, and even get other perspectives besides your own. 

After developing a full understanding of the problem or challenge, the fun begins: brainstorming possible solutions. The possibilities are endless, and maybe that is daunting, but focus first on just listing all ideas. Then go through each idea and look at its feasibility: can you do it? How much energy or effort will it take? Do you have the resources? Narrow down all of the options to three. Look closely at the three options and weigh the pros and cons. 

The next step can be the hardest: pick one idea and do it. Sounds crazy, right? But really, getting to work is the hardest step. Once you have started, momentum will carry you forward. As you work, you might adapt the plan as needed. 

When you have a finished product, step back and look at it critically. Does it accomplish your goals? What needs to be adjusted, changed, or removed? For writers, this phase is called editing. For personal goals, it is called self-reflection. And in engineering and robotics, this is known as iteration: evaluate and make adjustments. In FTC, the opportunity to re-work the robot repeatedly is one of the awesome components of the program.

To recap, problem solving is just a few steps:

1. Understand the problem
2. Brainstorm and strategize
3. Get to work on the solution
4. Evaluate and make adjustments

FTC teams do this every day! They say, “Challenge accepted!” and get to work. Whether working on a task as a team or as an individual, the goal is an effective solution.

The FIRST Future Innovator Award, sponsored by the Abbott Fund, the philanthropic foundation of the global healthcare company Abbott, celebrates the ingenuity and creativity it takes to brainstorm and develop a solution to a problem. Working on the challenges presented by the Award can be excellent problem-solving practice for FTC participants or a chance for them to take their skills and apply it to a different type of challenge. FIRST is awarding $5000 for first place, $2500 for two runners up, and a trip to the FIRST World Championship.

Working individually, in small groups that cross teams, or with their complete team, FTC and FRC participants brainstorm and develop an innovation to address one of the Grand Engineering Challenges chosen for the Award: Provide Access to Clean Water; Advance Health Informatics; or Engineer the Tools of Scientific Discovery. A complete solution is not required! For more information, be sure to check out the FIRST Future Innovator Award webpage and watch the Announcement Video. When you are ready, create an account and submit your idea! Questions? Email FFIA@usfirst.org.

We know that you are already thinking of solutions, because that’s what innovators and FTC teams alike do. You say “Challenge accepted!” and get to work.