Re: Team 1717 retires
 

This makes total sense if you read the article. FRC is a great program, but isn't scalable in the ways it would need to be to provide a large number of students with a comprehensive capstone.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

This is sad news for the FIRST community, but I'm glad to see that the school is moving on to a program with a lot of the same goals.

I remember watching the championship streams back in 2012 and I was always impressed with 1717's accuracy. They were a huge inspiration when it came to controls and consistency.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

+1
This was the robot that made me a major 1717 fan. That robot was one of the best and fastest bridge balancers in Newton...but you seldom saw it balance, because even in the few seconds that took they could rack up more basket points by flawlessly hitting the top hoop from anywhere on the field.

Their robot was only surpassed by the friendly and professional nature of their student members. Cooperating during matches with 1717 at the 2012 Championship was one of the things that made our first and (thus far) only trip to Championship memorable.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

Dang...

For so many years competing with and against 1717.. It will be hard to imagine going to regional events without them. I remember their rookie year... seeing this amazing team coming out of nowhere to get rookie inspiration in 2006. Then we teamed with them in 2007 and became regional finalists. We knew there was something great with this team... and we were right!!! From then on every year either we(294) ended up teaming with them or playing against them in the regional eliminations.. (usually in the finals).

What a great team. I will miss the intensity and the amazing students they brought year in and year out. The LA area will definitely miss you 1717...

First dozer and now this. What is the world coming to?

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

As tragic as this is for the FIRST Community, the Mechatronics project does sound very interesting, as well as being an enriching experience for the students. Yes, competition and large-scale teamwork are two selling points of FIRST that DPEA students will be missing out on, but that aside, it's an interesting opportunity for them.

Cheers to 1717, for building some robots in their FRC run that inspired many of us to "do better", and for giving their students some amazing opportunities to learn.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

I am truly saddened to here of such a great team being closed down. While mechatronics is great and i am sure student will have an amazing experience with it, there is just something that (IMHO) FRC provides that no assembly project can mimic.

The thing that really bums me out about this news is they were a team that I looked up to. After reading "The New Cool" I got really excited and they became a sort of beacon of how FRC and FIRST could be incorporated into public education. Hopefully their new program goes well.

I also hope that they can find a way to come back in some facet, like an after school team.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

1717 was one of those teams you looked to when you needed an example of things done right. A great role model. They will be missed.

Also, their drive-train was the swerve gold standard.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

DPEA will still be one of the top programs in the country even without FRC. In previous years, their students only participated in FRC during their senior year. What did all those students do from freshmen to junior levels that made them so ready for FRC ? DPEA has decided to go for a better capstone project for every student.

Whatever direction they go everyone should take note and look at how they are trying to improve each of their students.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

Does anyone know if they're planning on carrying on as an extracurricular?

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

Thank you for the years of inspiration, 1717. It sounds like the new direction you are headed will be better for your students in the long run.

-Nick

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

**Disclosure: the thoughts and ideas expressed below do not in any way reflect that of Team 1717 or those involved with the team and this decision.**

That being said, I am very sad about this announcement. I personally think it's the wrong decision but recognize the place it's coming from. I think the fundamental nature of going down the path of Mechatronics over FRC is that of Education vs. Inspiration.

It says it right in the name: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. FIRST is about inspiring people to get into STEM. It has done the best job of gamifying STEM that the world has ever seen. It's fun and exciting and even allows for spectators to get into it. Dean has said it himself many times, that he can't wait for the day when our scientists and engineers are as celebrated as our professional athletes. FIRST does a great job to make that come alive.

What FIRST isn't, however, is fully focused on education. The teams who come up with the best robot and have the best drivers are celebrated. The kids and mentors are all driven (to crazy/amazing extents) by this one specific goal. To design/build/drive the best robot, you need to specialize in tasks and divide up the labor. You set up various sub-teams and pin-point one specific aspect of the robot to perfect. You work day and night to make sure that, come Gameday, you win. It's also a very short build-season and has required the DPEA to set up a structure where you have 3.5 years of "practice" and 4 months of the "real thing." I'm not too familiar with Mechatronics but from what I gather... the students are able to work on a much more comprehensive set of tasks and challenges. The coders get to machine. The machiners get to design. The designers get to code. Without having this super high-intensity challenge, it does allow for students to get a much more well-rounded STE(A)M education.

Now why do I think this is the wrong path to go down? Because I don't actually think it should be about the education over inspiration. Team 1717 has earned such an impressive local (and FIRST-wide) reputation of engineering excellence, compassion, teamwork and competitiveness, that they themselves become the inspiration for other teams in the community. 1717 has mandated for as long as it could, that the program would be 50/50 men & women. 1717 goes to all the local junior highs to give demos and presentations and recruit applicants of hundreds of 13 year-olds who now want to do engineering for high school. 1717 helped inspire a book that further encouraged people to go into engineering.

By focusing on education, the DPEA might end up with the most well-rounded, qualified, high school graduates in the country, but the influence of 1717 went well beyond that. The DPEA now will be much more insular. It won't have a broader community to connect with and be inspired by themselves. FRC also goes well beyond high school. I now have coworkers who I can talk to about FIRST. I'm 8 years out of the program and still follow the FRC competition closely. In my opinion, this intangible inspiration has been discounted in making this decision and will decrease the overall lasting impact that this program has given myself, my peers, and the community at large.

Hopefully time will prove me wrong and the DPEA continues to thrive and grow. I have full faith in the leadership of the program and so far they seem to have gotten things right. 1717 will be missed.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

I'll tell them the school built its FIRST team into a role model for technical and competitive excellence. Twenty design awards and ten blue banners in ten seasons (sorry if I missed some) don't tell their whole story, which is really about building an engineering academy, from the foundation up.

I don't see a tragedy. Maybe some tears are justified, like those shed at commencement, not at a funeral. I've known quite a few individual FIRST alumni who now do really cool things in science and technology through other means. DPEA is now a distinguished corporate alumnus of FIRST.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

My thoughts as well.

Re: Team 1717 retires
 

1717 will definitely be missed, but as an educator I salute them taking the path they see as best for their students.

We have an Engineering Academy in Dublin, though younger than theirs. Our FRC program, which the EA students participate in, is an extra curricular activity. We are actually in the process of more integration of the Engineering Academy and the FRC program.

The FRC program is the best recruiting tool we have for the Academy and for our other engineering and programming classes. The extra-curricular nature of the program helps because it is students from all three district high schools, as are all of our academies. Our district has a number of such Academy programs, engineering, biomedical sciences, teaching, energy and the environment, business and young professionals that serve all of the schools. The extra-curricular competitive aspect of FRC is one of the things that heightens the inspirational effect of FRC.