Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Currently we are switch from the excitement of the season to the anticipation of the off-season. For one of my off-season projects I must get help from all of you. You can help me by answering one simple question:

What have been the most exciting/most annoying things you have done or experienced in robotics?

No answer is incorrect (unless it doesn't follow Chief Delphi regulations) and any input can really help me out.

Thank You From
Team 701 Student Ian Workman

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exiciting: Winning the Engineering Inspiration award after three years of very very hard work. Three years of my life paid off in that moment and it would be very hard to express that feeling.

The most annoying: Having new mentors every year, luckily for us the lead business mentor is a college student. The problem is with our engineering mentors. This year, GM sent us mentors with no previous knowledge of the competition and very questionable engineering expertice. The worst part of it is thar when somebody tried to make a suggetion or question the way mentors wanted the robot to be build they would kick us out from the workshop. I as the most experienced member of the mechanics team had very deep problems with the mentors (I even think that the lead mentor took it personal). When I tried to suggest an improvement or a better way to design the robot I was accused by the lead mentor of trying to "overthrow" him... and I swear I never was disrespectful to him. This ended in our robot having a very lame performance. (Our robot had very serious common sense issues this years due to the sturborness and lack of knowledge by our mentors)

Sometimes things go right, sometimes things go wrong, but the most important thing is being inspired. I was inspired by the performance of our mentors to become a mechatronic engineer (It's a career in which you learn mechanics, programming and electronics, a very demanding career but totally worth it).

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exciting: I'd say my most exciting part of robotics is the competitions. I know that a lot of people would say that but through FIRST I've gained so many friends that I look forward to seeing at competition every year. The energy is insane and no matter what's going on in my personal life, I can put it all on hold and help run my team. It's the best feeling ever. :)

The most annoying thing: Probably the changing of mentorship and leadership. We ran into a lot of change-ups in our mentors and everything this year. 2 out of the 3 mentors we had, really had very little experience with FIRST so it made things a little rough.

Overall an awesome experience, just like last year. :D

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting:
Being down there on the field on Einstein to watch my team compete. 862 has NEVER won any districts or regionals before this year, let alone a whole CMP division. Winning that division alongside 148 and 1678 was one of my most memorable and exciting memories. Not just of robotics, but in my whole life.

Most Annoying:
Always being the first one done during build season, but never being able to test code because fabrication, CAD, and electrical lag behind programming.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Traveling to over a dozen regional and off season events is pretty exciting.
Getting stuck waiting in line for planes or at borders crossings not so much.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

exciting
tieing the record for farthest a minnesota team has ever made it (division finalists)

annoying
So about a week and a half into build season we added one of our rookie members to our CAD and Code dropbox. He was and still is running some weird Linux setup on his computer. When we got to the shop the next morning all of the files in the dropbox were reading as zero kb. All the last edits were made at the exact same time in the night, about the time when he was added to the dropbox. Thank god for dropboxes restore previous version, it still took about two hours to fix everything, but its better then starting over, needless to say he is not allowed on the dropbox with his computer until we track down the source of the problem. Thankfully though we had gotten a team labtop in the offseason.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

What have been the most exciting thing you have done or experienced in robotics?

The most exciting thing is perhaps working during crunch time.

You're watching a match, and all of a sudden, the robot trips. Not literally, of course, but there's a slight hiccup. The robot operator flinches, and while no one knows yet, I know that there's a problem. We finish the match with the usual end game, but as the drive team frantically pulls the robot off the field, I stare at the match schedule. My heart drops as I realize that there's only 15-20 minutes left to apply whatever fix is required to fix the random problem. The race is on.

What have been the most annoying thing you have done or experienced in robotics?

Students who don't try, or better yet, students who are resume-pushers.

I'll take the previous question and rephrase it slightly for another answer:
What has been the most saddening thing you have done or experienced in robotics?

When students crack under the pressure. As a mentor, I'm not here just to build the machine or boss around students. When the world (or robotics) is caving in on them, it's my job to come in and brace the walls.

It saddens me beyond belief when students let something get to them, and then they crack (if only slightly). I feel like that speaks to me as a competitor, teammate, and a mentor.

- Sunny G.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exciting thing has to be the dawning that what my team did, what I helped do- went 15-0 and won the Connecticut Regional.

The rush of realizing that we built an amazing robot that can compete with the big dogs. That's when I knew that I really wanted to pursue engineering for a career.

The most annoying, frustrating thing is when students (and mentors for that matter) feel like it's hopeless. When I was expressing my optimism to a friend that next year could be our year to finally make Einstein- being that we have the right group of students and knowledge, I had a 1st year mentor tell em that we couldn't because we don't have a big sponsor like NASA or Chrysler that we build with. He told me, that we couldn't compete with them because of that.
That was the most frustrating thing, because with all the work we put in, with the kind of robot we built, he was telling me that we couldn't possibly contend with the likes of 33 or 254.

I'm still hopeful, but I can't lie, he really disappointed me.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exciting thing: Winning Regional Chairman's at North Star Regional, after having put in so much time into the presentation, essays and other materials. It was a culmination of six full years of aiming for the award on the part of my team, and it was a joy to see all that finally pay off.

The most annoying thing: Watching my team erode away our robot's effectiveness over the course of two regionals and Championships. The less I say about that the better.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Don't worry Kevin, it just shows that we still have some inspiring to do!:rolleyes:

My most exciting experience in FIRST has to be taking the field with three of my best friends my senior year in 2011. Going out there with the drive and commitment we all had for the team was really fun. Despite having a less than competitive robot that year, we went out there and did our best with what we had. Had a few things gone a little differently, we may have found ourselves playing on Saturday afternoon at Champs. I've also never worked harder for second place in my life...learned a lot that year.

The most annoying thing I have experienced in FIRST is people being afraid to set goals or any lack of aspiration to be better. Any organization can benefit from setting its sights high and pushing to reach its goals.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exciting thing. This year had two both equally amazing...

Our first time competing in mainland competitions!

First mainland regional was at the Los Angeles Regional.
Winning the Engineering Inspiration Award.
This is our second EI win in a row.
Especially after having to completely rework our shooter to comply with the interpretation difference of a safe shooter wheel. Flew in from Hawaii overnight straight to the competition to find out that the shooter had to be encased. Spent the entire first day making it fit within our frame perimeter, getting no practice or fine tuning. Since most of us didn't sleep on the flight and the 3 hours of time difference we where quite exhausted for the entire competition. The students stayed strong and never gave up. Made me proud.

Our second mainland regional was at the Inland Empire.

Winning our first Chairman's Award. Big deal to us as a third year team! Amazing...
So many of our students worked so hard this year to achieve this. From graphics to outreach and everything in between, a truly next level achievement. I am still in awe.

The most annoying thing. This year again..

Traveling to the world competition with a new and improved floor pickup system and having the only tote that couldn't be lost... LOST.. Thanks American Airlines... :(
Not only was our pickup system lost so was all our spare parts.. Made the whole competition much more stressful than it already is.. Sad thing is the student that fabricated it insisted on carrying it on the plane but wasn't allowed by TSA. :mad:
Luckily we needed no spares, thanks to all the Newton teams that were there to support our efforts to fabricate some semblance of a pickup.

The tote is still MIA.. Could be in LA, Dallas, St. Louis...
So if you see a tote that is now converted itself into a robot, tell it to phone home.. :p
Makes next years plan to build our first practice robot less of a reality.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: going on the field and high-fiving judges when receiving our third GP award in a row at the Israeli regional this year. This award was my goal this year, not winning or getting chairman's. This was my senior year, and I had to leave a mark. What would be more appropriate than imbedding the value most important to me, and most fitting to our team's spirit and history, in our younger team members? Standing on the field and having the judges hand me he trophy was the most exciting thing that happened to me in FIRST, maybe in my entire life. It proved to me I was successful.
(note: in our regional only two representatives go to receive the award, not the entire team).

Most annoying: Being on one of the bottom three (6-8) alliances EVERY $@#$@#$@#$@# YEAR.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: Seeding first in the First first ever MN state robotics competition, and then going to win the First first ever MN state robotics competition. Being the driver of the robot and balancing on the bridge for the last time because it was my Sr. year. Cutting down a net from the hoop was something I wanted to do but never thought our team would make it that far. No better way to leave First then that. Having a state medal is still hard to believe!

Most Annoying: Having only two years of robotics as a student. Not that I didn't join the team the first two years of high school but because the team started my Jr. year. Wish I could have 4 years as a student but at least I came back to mentor this year and will continue to do so. Lastly that this years robot had macanum wheels and i cant drive it in a competition!

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: Winning Chairman's for the third year in a row at the Washington DC Regional in 2011 as a freshman Chairman's presenter.

Most annoying: Having very consistant robot design and performance. Consistantly over engineered.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting:
As a first year mentor taking in a second year team making the semi-finals in Newton as a 4th ranker.

Most Annoying:
Seeing any adult mentor/coach/team leader on any team or in any school pull down students. As a mentor if you are not in it for the teens then you shouldn't be in it at all.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

This sounds like a fun project! What are you going to do with all these awesome responses?

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exciting part of FIRST for me is watching my team, and many other teams sustain throughout the years. Many teams have lost what they thought was everything (mentors, build sites, seniors), and they always seem to find a way through it.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The 24 hours between about 7PM on March 28 and 7PM on March 29, 2008.

Got engaged to my wife, won the Philadelphia Regional, won the Regional Chairman's Award.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exciting thing : being on a bad cycled-team with about 3 kids out of 20 who aren't rookies, on your rookie team, making it to rank 8, feeling proud as hell in the most awesome competition in the world. It's the knowing that you won't win the regional this time, but still making the best out of the best of times. :)

The most annoying thing: having your autonomous mode not working due to some unknown network problem, which could've been solved very easily... And figuring out the solution a week after that regional...

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Don't lose hope! There's always a possibility waiting to happen. We aren't sponsored by GM or NASA or Chrysler and we made it to Einstein. Albeit it was a very shaky road there, we made it. But I can totally agree with you on the negativity thing being one of the most annoying aspects of a team.

After the third match in Einstein, while we were all crossing our fingers, there was this one kid down there who was just so defeated looking. The score was close, we knew it was close, but he had completely given up. We at least beat those "Chrysler" and "NASA" teams on our way to Einstein. That was one of the most satisfying competition seasons I've ever been apart of. And all this from a team that before this year, had never one even a district event.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: Thinking about how much I learned since I joined my team and how much I learned just this year. Winning my first district/regional and placing 7th in MAR was pretty exciting also. This whole thing is exciting.

Most annoying: My time as a student is over:(

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Well I don't want to spoil anything but this information shall be used to make something that I hope everyone can use and enjoy. :D

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The most exciting....that's tough. There's quite a few but here:
Seeing our DriveTeam Coach (a student), also our Control Systems subteam captain, working to fix a team's robot when our team was up to play. The team he was helping was going to play against us that match.

The most annoying, not much annoys me as I see everything as a chance to learn and improve but:
Doing things to help us win an award rather than to just do them because they're the right thing to do. This mentality has rubbed off on our students, and we're trying to change it by saying "You'll win the award, then what, just stop doing things? Give me a better reason".

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting thing:
Realizing that I started doing FRC as a seventh grader, and am getting two more years of student time than most people do.

Most annoying thing:
Not starting as a sixth grader.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting - We made it to Einstein this year for the first time ever! tres cool!

Most annoying - moving our operations frequently and at awkward times (we have no permanent home). Also expensive (we need to rent trucks).

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting moment: When we won the Judge´s Award this year at Alamo, we thought we will win the Industrial Safety Award but when we heard our name and our description with the community outreach we went crazy!

Most annoying moment: There were two actually: When a slot of our cRio broke some hours before a scrimmange we organized. When our compressor started to fail at the competition.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: Watching our first match on Einstein 2 weeks ago. I was absolutely sure going into that match that the other team would mop the floor with us, watching our alliance work like a machine (pun intended) and show everyone how it's done on Curie was incredible, I'm not gonna lie, I've never cheered so hard in my life.

Most annoying: Probably electrical failures keeping us from division finals last year and Einstein finals this year.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most Exciting: Meeting all kinds of people and having similar interests as me and the excitement and energy of most people at competition.

Most Annoying: Having to leave my new friends and the negativity i see when some teams bash on others because that is just plain bullying and aren't we suppose to get along.

(Thought I might as well do my own with all the great replies). :D

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting:
I've seriously spent 15 minutes sitting here staring at my screen trying to pinpoint the most exciting memory I've had with FIRST. It's hard, because everything has been exciting. One of my favorites is getting to travel as a volunteer. Going to IRI in 2009 I got to meet a ton of people that had previously only been usernames and pictures online. I went to St. Louis for the Championship in 2011 and met even more people. Plus, my CAD leader was pretty thrilled when I was able to bring him a new copy of Inventor from the CD webhug :)

Most annoying:
I'll second this
After my first year on the team, our founding teacher decided to retire. During my time as a student we had four teachers in four years (they left for different reasons - retirement, family, not enough time), and the teacher from my senior year has finally stuck around. We also gained and lost mentors every year such that only two of the mentors from my freshman year were still around by the time I graduated...our contact with GM and her husband. All very frustrating, but it seems like the team is thankfully stabilizing now.

And only getting to volunteer once a year. That's annoying too. I need more robots in my life!

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most Exciting - I've got 2.
1. Winning RCA in Hawaii. It was my first time as a Chairman's presenter, and it was an incredible feeling having all of my work for that season being recognised.
2. Watching our robot, which was at least twice the robot we had last year, lose our Semi-Final by 1 disc which was jammed in our robot. DUDE. WE MADE SEMIS!

Most Annoying - Not getting any feedback as to how we did at Championships for Chairman's. Don't get me wrong, I left that room totally satisfied with everything we'd done, it would have been nice to have received a feedback form or something from the judges.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: Getting picked by 2056 at championship is pretty much the best thing that has happened this year, nearly as much as winning North Star. It was unfortunate we only made it to the semifinals but is still really amazing getting to work with one of the best, if not the best team this year.

The most annoying: having to wait 7 months for the 2014 season to start (at least we have off season projects, camps, & fundraisers to pass the time)

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting:
Student:
Winning the 2006 Philadelphia Regional with our sister team 291, and going to Atlanta for championships!
Also the look on our mentor, Mr. Ken Morrison's face, when we won him the Pittsburgh Regional Woodie Flowers Award.

Mentor:
Having all of the build and drive team graduate last year, and teaching the kids everything I could before the season started. Most didn't even know what a screw driver was, now almost every single one can explain how every function of the robot works. It is an amazing feeling, seeing how much they have grown and learned in such a small amount of time, I was very proud of the machine, they call JARVIS, that they built.


Most Annoying:
Student:
That we were such a small team, and couldn't do as much as other teams. Most everyone put all effort into the robot and known of the other parts of FIRST. (which I was proven wrong by the team now)

Also that my Senior year we did not train the younger kids very well, we wanted to have the best machine we had ever built, we did it but the team payed for it for years to come, they followed the ways we were and year after year not much was taught and pasted down.

Mentor:
poor communication and efforts between mentors, we need to work together as one team of mentors. (working on it)
Also losing the schools interest in FIRST, after our lead mentor retired, the school started focusing on Robobots, battle bots, and slowly pushed us aside. ( also working on)

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting:
Winning MN 10K Lakes in 2012. That was also the first year we were ever picked during alliance selections. It was a pretty big season for us. CMP was absolutely insane and was an experience I'll never forget.

Most annoying:
As a leader, dealing with the situation that happens when half your team wants to work on the robot but is distracted by the other half that wants to use computers for video games and Robotics as an excuse to not do homework. And the policy that says we have to include everyone, even if they aren't willing to participate.

Most saddening
When someone leaves - not because they don't enjoy the program, but because of team dynamics such as cliques. I've almost done this before due to the annoying situation above. It really is sad when certain circumstances seem to block what the program is really trying to get across.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

The best feeling in the world is hearing your name called for the Chairman's Award. In that moment all the late nights after school, all the endless script sessions in the car with your brother, all the sleepless nights don't matter. I stopped listening after I knew it was us--I couldn't believe it.

The worst feeling is the 'what do we do?' feeling once you get back from champs. You've been living in the lab for the past four months, and now there's nothing to do. :( but there's always the offseason events.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most Exciting:
The Most Exciting thing I have ever done was to actually pick 67 (I highly respect and consider them a 'Legendary' Team). First of all I couldn't believe we preformed so well after hoping just to be a third pick. In the actual selection I was calm and relaxed as I called them but I was frikin ecstatic on the inside; and the 67 representative was a chills guy.

Most Annoying
Team members that are uncooperative, don't listen to anything you say even though your captain and don't even listen to mentors.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: As a rookie, everything was very exciting. I found the last days of build season, the first day of competition, and the elimination matches to be the most so. I loved the excitement at kickoff and the enthusiasm and dancing in the stands at competition as well.

Annoying: The last moments of alliance selection when you have not been picked and you know that the season is over for your team. So sad, especially when you have been living in the build room for the past 8 weeks.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: My overall experience so far. I feel like it has opened doors and developed aspects of myself that I would not ordinarily be able to explore. This season has been interesting in particular. I was voted by my team into a leadership position, which has been very interesting and fun.
One last thing: elimination rounds in Spokane, this match in particular.


Most annoying: People who have no regard of their safety and the people around them and who make no effort to improve their attitude.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

As an alumni not currently working directly with a team, but being involved in some capacity since middle school, I'll try to give a more general perspective than just specific "wins" as the exciting moment.

Most exciting moment: Making lifelong friends. As cliche as it sounds, I have friends I've met through robotics over 13+ years ago and it's a mini-reunion every year at the various regionals, off-season events, etc., as so many of us have stayed involved through volunteering, mentoring, creating new teams, and so on. In the age of Facebook, it's easy to lose track of your "friends" amongst the constant influx of updates, but FIRST allows us to have a constant connection to those we met through it. Another HUGE bonus I've recently been able to appreciate much more than when I was a student is the epic networking opportunity FIRST offers. The judges at any given FIRST competition are established professionals in their fields, often time with the ability to offer internships, or possibly even jobs - if you just take the time to ask them, "so what do you do?" One of the best kept secrets about FIRST.

Most annoying moment: No alumni FIRST league!! :)

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Hello Again,

To the purpose of me originally posting this thread, it was to get ideas for a video game i wanted to develop. The good things would help me get ideas for good scenarios, characters, moves, and so on. The bad being enemies, bad scenarios, bad effects, and so on form there. the base of the game would be you waking up in classroom(based on the class that i have) that a robotics class is held in. You notice that nobodies there and you go to the shop room to investigate and find broken robots that you have to fight and then go on to have a normal rpg-esque feel to go on. This was inspired by the challenge to make it loud.

However I am in no way a man how can even try to make a game on his own. I still love to see your responses. This thread can help you vent about the bad and celebrate the good. It may even be possible to actually get this game off the ground through support but which ever way this goes I am still glad i was able to allow you to get things across, even if it is in a small way, about how you feel.

To a possible future,
Team 701 member,
Ian Workman

"A spark is all it takes to light a fire, however the fire that is made is out of the full control of its source and will burn and spread in ways unimaginable."

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: There's too many to say for this. It could be our team making it to the finals at Pine Tree, hearing our team qualified for the district championship on the bus home at spot #54, the entire district championship, seeing the screen light up with our team number for those who qualified for the world championship, the bus ride to St. Louis, or operating the shooter mechanism at the CT state championship. I can't pick just one.

Most annoying: Having to wait 7 months for the next season.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most Exciting: Our team making it to Semi's at South Florida

Most Annoying: Being told by a member of another team that our robot "couldn't be any worse"

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: elims at Lake Superior in 2013

Most frustrating: taking 2 weeks last year to decide on a design, then changed designs 11 days from the end of the build season

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most Exciting: winning your 1st event with a rotating all rookie field team.

Most Frustrating: Having your lead mentor tell other students to lie to you and setup a scheme to try to cover his back.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

One of the most exciting things: Being able to do so much these past two years. In 2013 we were ranked 54th in the world, and won our first district in awhile. In 2014 we won both district competitions we attended. It was some of the most exciting moments I've had beating seemingly impossible odds and coming out on top when we weren't even sure if we would get picked for elims.

One of the most annoying/ saddening things: Lack of resources. Don't get me wrong we've been trying very hard and doing fairly well with what we have, but it sometimes feels like we don't have much. Our only facility is a small workshop based out of a (very gracious) community college. We have a couple drill presses a band saw a small lathe and some power tools. We're very fortunate and grateful to have this equipment but it can be very frustrating when teams are talking about having a state of the art nasa laboratory with cnc mills and a dozens of engineering experts on everything. ( I know I'm exaggerating somewhat but this is how it feels.) Another not so much annoying but more depressing thing is that we lost five seniors this year which made up most of our drive team, and most of our experience in general. Our team this year is made up of seven students and often it feels overwhelming being thrust into positions that were before out of the question for us to occupy. It is very frustrating hearing teams complaining about "only" have twenty incoming students for the new year. As of right now, we have zero new students.

The only thing we can do is keep trying our best for excellence. FRC has still been fairly kind to our team in recent years. No matter what happens it is still extremely fun, and without a doubt one of the best things that has happened to me.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most Exciting: Being an alliance captain at both regionals that we went to. We haven't been alliance captains a ton, so twice in a row was amazing.

Most Annoying: Well, more sad, but it was that moment at the Windsor regional when 1114 and 2056 ended up in an alliance together. I saw it coming, but was hoping that alliance wouldn't happen. Well played by them though, they deserved it.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Really frustrating: telling your team not to participate in the prank played on Max and they all think it's hilarious. Especially frustrating since we'd won Gracious Professionalism at South Florida and they were actually working with the other team to play a really awful joke.

Also annoying: We're a fairly big team, so there is a significant number of people who don't work on the robot, but do practice field, strategy, Chairman's, etc. Then these people go to the competitions and make fun of the rookie robots. It's bad enough that they are saying this, but they hadn't even built a robot themselves.

Even more annoying: the same teams I had to defend coming up to us and telling us that Pratt & Whitney builds our robots for us. I wasn't aware that our student build team worked for P&W. I built part of the robot- I'm pretty sure I'd know if I worked for Pratt.

Awesome: Everything that happens after week three in build season. Somehow everything seems really exciting when you have no sleep.

Exciting: winning two regionals for the first time. Woohoo!

Very cool: Dean's List Finalist award on my birthday.

My favorite: This year we had a few teams, primarily 1523, visit to practice with us. This was the first time that we'd done this at least while I was a member, and I liked having different robots to play with.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: I love competition and like to win but get more excited about the calls from a student when they make it into their college of choice or receive a google fellowship etc AND when former students return to mentor after graduating. I guess I'm getting older...

Most Frustrating: Modifying competition plans or robot design elements after coming up cash short AND not being able to "fix" the incredible issues some students face at home or school.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

I could not agree more with you. When I started out on 1678 we always did okay, every year we made it to the eliminations. But every year we lost in the quarter finals and so without fail did this happen that we began calling it the Quarter Final Curse. Until 2011 when we won our first regional and we have been improving as a team ever since. This coming year is the first time in our team's history that we have an actual machine shop. This years Aerial Assist robot was 90% fabricated in a 20' shipping container with a small selection of bench-top and hand tools and one Bridgeport mill(this was our first year we had it too). The robot was assembled in our head mentors math class. We went head to head with 254 many times this season and on Einstein Field we gave them one of their few losses this season. Last year (Ultimate Ascent)was much the same story but with slightly fewer resources. We have long been a team who does everything to maximize what we have and how we use it.

Which brings me to my point.

Fancy machines, CAD software, bottomless accounts, none of those matter. What matters is your will power, your dedication, your hard work, and a team attitude that never lets you give up and stop working when you can settle for no less than making your robot run flawlessly. It's not the tools and resources that make the team, but simply planning to build a robot that can play hard ball on Einstein and then to make it happen with hard work and what you have.

Our Ultimate Ascent robot the E-lime-O-nator could hardly be recognized from our first regional and Champs. The only thing on that robot that was the same from our first event was our drive train. The shooter, completely replaced in favor of a superior design. The ground intake, completely replaced with a more efficient one. We never stopped trying to improve that robot and our performance reflected that.

Design a robot to win and figure out how to make it within your means.

Most frustrating: lack of team communication slowing build season to a crawl.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most exciting: having an amazing senior year being ranked 1st for the first time in team history, being a picker at al three events including district championship, and being ranked 9th in NE.

ABSOLUTLY MOST EXCITING:BATTLECRY 15 AT WPI, AND OUR RUN TO THE SEMI-FINALS AFTER BEING THE 20TH RANKED ALLIANCE CAPTAIN. KNOCKING OFF THREE ALLIANCE HIGHER RANKED INCLUDING THE #2 RANKED BEFORING LOSEING IN THREE MATCHES TO THE TEAM THAT WENT ON TO WIN. (I believe we were the only team to bring them to three matches.)

Most frustrating: in four years of making absolutely amazing robots very capable of winning, not being able to finish with that first place. (2011 losing semi-finals by penalty) 2012-( going undefeated in qualifying and losing in quarter finals due to new balls being used causing our shooter to shoot to far.) 2013- broke a joystick in final match could not operate robot.)
2014- (bunch of minor mistakes costing us the win.)

But overall it was an amazing 4 years, especially the last year, and I couldn't be happier about our accomplishments.

Re: Life of a FIRST Robotics Member
 

Most Exciting:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?p=613604
(After reading back through that after so many years, man, I didn't realize just how good we had it back then :) )