FIRST Robotics Team's community mentor has no way to get educational license for AutoCAD

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

This is Gary from FIRST Robotics Competition team 7520. We are a community FRC team, our mentors cannot get AutoCAD License though the new SheerID activiation process. Mentors are not students nor teacher with government-issued teacher ID. Mentors knows how to use AutoCAD and been teaching for years in other FRC teams. Without license we cannot renew AutoCAD. 

I tried education support and they send me here. What should our team do to so that we can get the sponsored license?

Thank you.

messages i sent through support are below.

Hello I'm Gary from FIRST Robotics Competition team 7520, I'm the mentor who also in charge of guiding student's CAD skills. I used to be a mentor in FRC team 4001, have strong skills in 2D & 3D CAD. We are starting CAD training section now but mentors are unable to get autocad licenses due to we are community team who is based on a garage, a backyard and basement. We are not a profit team, we don't charge student team fee except food and some basic fee. Our mentors are formed with students' parents and FRC volunteers like me together, students are from schools which don't have an FRC team, we are trying to let students enough skills before university while also let them love STEM. This is my 8th year in FRC and 11th year with AutoCAD, none of our mentor is a formal teacher. We do have a lot of finacial difficulties, we cannot afford business license of autocad and we have nothing to do with making business with Autodesk apps. Please consider to sponsor our mentors with license of AutoCAD, Inventor and Fusion education verison. Thank you.

Hello Abhishek,

I did check website links again, we are FIRST Robotics Competition team which is definitely Autodesk sponsored competition, but we are community team rather than school team. Our mentors are not teachers from school, we are just volunteers, parents and retired robot enthusiasts. The team is not on school list, neither the team number. And we are not afterschool robot educational company either, we cannot afford AutoCAD business licenses.

I could try to reach over to FIRST Robotics organization for a proof, but we would need to know what information we need from the event host. Without 2D CAD software we really cannot survive, and i believe it will be the same to other community-style FRC teams. Please consider to sponsor us education version of Autodesk software, students already have software installed with their highschool IDs and are waiting us to teach them remotely. Couple of our mentors have AutoCAD skills for over 10 years but need to renew license.

Thank you,
Gary Chen,
Mentor and Alumni from FRC 7520 and FRC 4001

CaseNo:16801216

[Anonymous]

Is your goal to convince Autodesk or find a sponsor on the forums? Because this is a user-based forum and we have nothing to do with decisions on who is granted an educational license. 

Review these articles:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/education-program/who-can-join/el...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/education-program/who-can-join/el...

[leowarren34]

Hi @Anonymous,

I've seen this before and it's something that has been left at the sidelines.

@Anonymous The Issue with the system is that First Robotics is Sponsored by Autodesk so they are eligible for an education license under the design mentor role yet SheerID is blocking since they aren't a teacher/student;

In addition to meeting the eligibility requirements set forth in the Website Terms of Use for use of the Site, to use the Education Community, you must be age 13 or older and one of the following: (a) an IT Administrator acting on behalf of a Qualified Educational Institution, (b) an Educator; (c) a Student; or (d) an Autodesk-sponsored design competition mentor or competitor.

An Autodesk-sponsored design competition mentor is an individual who provides guidance, advice, coaching, or instruction to competitors engaged in competing in an Autodesk-sponsored design competition, and upon request by Autodesk is able to provide proof of such status. A competitor is a student or other individual who is registered and accepted or otherwise approved by a design competition organizer as a competition participant and who, upon request by Autodesk, is able to provide proof of such status. A list of Autodesk-sponsored competitions can be found on the Education Community (or successor site thereto): https://www.autodesk.com/education/competitions-and-events/all-competitions.

This was a similar post from a while back: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/installation-licensing/how-does-autodesk-support-educational-licenses-for-first/m-p/9308042

I'll ping @natasha.l to see if we can gain any ground from an Autodesk Perspective.

[Anonymous]

Thanks @leowarren34 for explaining my situation in detail, that's exactly what my team is facing now, community team need licenses or we have no way to teaching students. Hope to see natasha.l or someone else could help us out. It shouldn't be hard and won't cost anything from Autodesk, instead it's spreading Autodesk market...

[Anonymous]

Please see answer to my similar request here - https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/fusion-360-for-first-robotics-team/m-p/9685121/hig...

Short answer is - select "Design Competition Mentor" under Education Role if you are a coach or mentor for a FIRST robotics team, but not a teacher.  I was also told by support that non teacher mentors cannot receive a free license, but it is possible.