Free Worlds Technical Institute

The Free Worlds Technical Institute is a Free Worlds League academic institution focused on the recovery of LosTech.[1][2]

Overview[edit]

As the Succession War era continued without end, vast amounts of technical know-how disappeared and the Inner Sphere's overall level of development slid backwards by centuries. By the final decade of the Third Succession War, such gaps in technical knowledge became increasing pronounced with the Free Worlds League Parliament debating on ways to halt the decline and promote research into recovering so-called LosTech. Such thinking received impetus following the Federated Suns establishment of the New Avalon Institute of Science in 3015, the incredible success of which spawned responses from the other Successor States.[1][2]

Thus in 3023, Captain-General Janos Marik responded by founding the Free Worlds Technical Institute on the League capital of Atreus with former trader Quing Soyuz its first dean. The early years of FWTI would prove extremely problematic due to the difficulty in attracting suitable teachers and technical staff from League corporations who were willing to impart their knowledge and trade secrets, knowledge that was often considered proprietary. Parliamentary representative of the Abbey District Linkel Grant would prove extraordinarily capable of coaxing a company to offer up its secrets to FWTI in exchange for trade concessions from the League, but still the going was slow.[1][2]

As did the Inner Sphere as a whole, the Free Worlds Technical Institute benefited greatly from the discovery of the Helm Memory Core by Grayson Carlyle. Acknowledging League suzerainty over Helm, Carlyle provided copies of the core to Janos Marik and Duke Hector Stewart, who assigned FWTI as the conduit for disseminating this information within the League. Aside from a few personally negotiated exceptions, only those parties sponsoring attendees and teachers to the Free Worlds Technical Institute could gain access to the memory core's secrets, with the previous resistance and hesitation disappearing as everybody scrambled to support the school as FWTI expanded dramatically in scope and quality.[2]

The Free Worlds Technical Institute offers a range of courses covering a range of subjects as diverse as physics, chemical engineering and planetology, with most running for three to five years. FWTI has some degree of cross-training with graduates having a solid understanding over the spectrum the school's subjects in addition to their chosen major. In addition all students master the histories of every Successor State, friendly or enemy, a legacy of FWTI's first dean Quing Soyuz's belief that those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.[1][2]

Competition for places at Free Worlds Technical Institute is fierce. A legacy of Linkel Grant's formative efforts is that the Free Worlds Technical Institute is open to anyone in the League who passes the entrance examination, born of Grant's belief that a sharp mind should not be wasted, no matter from where it comes, with numerous scholarships on offer for the underpriveledged, funded by corporate interests and encouraged by tax incentives. Despite this, the highly technical nature of the entrance exam, which in some aspects exceeds even the academic requirements of the NAIS, favors the wealthy and nobility who have access to a more comprehensive education before attempting to enter FWTI.[1][2]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), p. 117: "Culture and Arts - Technology"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Handbook: House Marik, p. 112: "Society and Culture - Education - Free Worlds Technical Institute"

Bibliography[edit]