The need to excite high school students about math, science and engineering has never been stronger. While many companies and organizations have established bridges with PakFirst to help ensure the future presence of a qualified work force.

PakFirst (Pakistan Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) conducts provincial and national design competitions which demonstrate that engineering and science can be as interesting, captivating and entertaining as a sporting event. The competition requires an intense six week project for which industries and universities team with local high schools to design, construct and control a remotely operated vehicle for a sports based playoff whose objective changes each year.

The PakFirst competition is a large scale engineering competition which shows youth that no other career compares to one in science and engineering. Each team starts off with the same standard kit of parts and uses its creativity to design and build a vehicle capable of performing a demanding task better than other opponents. Teams made up of high school students, industrial engineers and, sometimes, university students join together in this hands-on project to build the better robot.

This guide has been developed to help PakFirst members start new teams to participate in the PakFirst robotics competition. While specific information regarding the schedule, fees, and rules of each competition are available directly from PakFirst.

Deciding to Participate:

Participating in PakFirst Robotics Competitions (PRC) is a way to celebrate the engineering profession locally and nationally. Participating in PRC is a commitment that will require a lot of energy, but that effort will make a positive impact in many other peoples' lives. Being devoted to helping others reach their full potential must be your primary reason for starting a PakFirst team.

Your project will work because you, as an individual, have stepped forward to make something good happen. PakFirst succeeds because individuals, like yourself, have decided to not simply talk, but instead, take action to improve the lives of others in their own community.

Starting a team undoubtedly requires time, talent, and resources. As an engineer, you have the talent to start and manage a PakFirst team. As an Student,  Professional and Engineer, you have access to the resources needed for sponsoring and supporting a PakFirst team. As a person, you must decide that this project is worth the time you will put into it.

Building a Team:

A PakFirst team may range in size from a small group of a few engineers and high school students to a small army of engineers, students, faculty and parents. The secret of building a successful team is not to assemble the largest team possible, but rather to assemble a team that can work well together. To work well together, the team must recognize and capitalize on the unique abilities of each member of the team.

To understand what is needed to build a PakFirst team, it is important to realize that the PakFirst project is more than the not-so-simple task of designing and building a robot from a standard set of raw materials. It involves such diverse aspects as financing the project, coordinating logistics, arranging press coverage for your team, and documenting the impact your team has made in your community.

Other than having high school students as the robot drivers and on field players, there are no other rules that specify who else has to be on a team. Typically, a PakFirst team will include some combination of the following categories of people:

1.High School Students: All students have different talents and enjoy different activities, and the PakFirst project is a forum for these individual talents to shine. Though the goal of PakFirst is to motivate students to pursue careers in science and engineering, the participating students need not be primarily interested in these fields. There is room on the team for every type of student. By their participation, many become attracted to engineering and others leave with an appreciation for and an understanding of the engineering profession.

For example, a student that likes writing can be assigned as the team’s publicist to handle press relations, a student with vocational training can help build the robot, a student strong in math may calculate the required geometry for the robot, a student that enjoys computers can develop a web page for the team, and a student interested in art can design the team’s logo and robot aesthetics. In short, every ability can be applied to the project.

2.Teachers: Faculty involvement is critical for the project. The faculty serve not merely as supervisors, but also as coaches for specific components of the project. Also, their involvement is crucial to generate enthusiasm and support for the project from within the school system.

3.Industry Engineers and Technicians: For many teams, this group is the nucleus of the project team. The following people are needed in this group: an electrician, a machinist, and at least two engineers, one of whom should have experience in product development. Included in this category of industry participants are government employees from technical research centers.

4.University Faculty and Students: A number of PakFirst teams have included university participants. There are many ways for university students and faculty to participate in PakFirst.

5.Others: This group includes interested parents, community members, retired teachers/engineers, and non-engineering industry representatives. Typically, this group coordinates any or all parts of the project beyond the design and construction of the robot. Having one industry team member from the public affairs office or the company’s executive office is a smart way to help secure the resources, exposure, and recognition that is critical to the project’s success.

Though the distribution of these five components varies from team to team, there are generally four types of teams that participate in PakFirst: an industry-high school partnership, a university-high school partnership, an industry-university-high school partnership, and a coalition team. While the first three team types are self explanatory and involve a single high school, industry and/or university, the coalition team involves multiple companies, universities and/or high schools competing as a single team. For example, one company may elect to sponsor a team that represents each high school in a school system, and, as a result, have four high schools represented on a single team. As another example, a group of small companies may join together to collectively sponsor and staff a single team.

During the project, the students witness the leadership needed to run organizations, and many students will be put in positions where they must lead critical elements of the project. The critical criteria for the team is its ability to work with each other to complete the many individual tasks needed to create a competitive robot. As such, the size of the team, beyond a minimum core of four able adults and a group of interested students, does not matter. What does matter is assembling a group that can respect each other’s opinions, form consensus, and work together.

Perhaps the best perspective to think about your team is to view your PakFirst team as your own personal company. You certainly want to have a successful business, so you want to involve the best people on your team. You will need to “hire” effective managers for your company: people that can follow a chain of command, be delegated responsibilities, and deliver the required products. These managers must direct the work of motivated and energetic employees (that may be students, faculty, parents, or industry participants). Like the real world, you will need to work hard to recruit talented people to join your company.

You must convince others to accept the same realization that you made when you committed to the PakFirst project: yes, this will take time, but there are few opportunities that can give a better return on the investment.