We (Team 360) build our robot at Metal Marine Pilot (they make autopilots for boats)

We have access to a large assembly line, so we have electrical components, building components, basically everything. We also have a machine shop and everything. hehe

Students (like myself) build the robot, we also have a $@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$@# advisor (Stoke - Dawg) who works with us =)

The Sea Dawgs build at Lincoln High School, and a student member's house (she has a mill, lathe, etc. in her garage). The students are doing almost all of the building. The only things they aren't building are our wheels. Our sponsor, Applied Materials, made our wheels. The students also do al of the assembly.

we build the robot (we being the college students). the high school students are ninnies: lazy, ritalin underdosed, or unmotivated, or even undependable.

i believe they prefer a "winning robot" than one built by hs students.

furthermore, none of the students are able to actually meet during the late hours, which is when the engineers meet.

if it were up to them, i'd laugh (and also be on the slopes rather than at the shop during my weekends).

-anton

ps. in the end, they do learn from the experience nonetheless.

Team 702 builds there robot at our high school. We stole the autoshop from all of the autoshop students that are too high to notice. They barely noticed that we moved a mill, laith, drill press, chop saw, and a band saw. I think they were to into watching day time tv. The ENTIRE robot is student built, our advisor points out that engineers are not there to do your work only point out your mistakes. And laugh.

If we didn't build it, who would?
 

Team 555 builds its robots, not the engineers, and not the machinists. We had a frame made from a machine shop, and a machinist helped assemble and build our gear box, but all actual assembling of our robot is done by the students, for better or worse, in our robotics "lab," a room in the basement full of broken furniture, tools, and a confused, displaced driver's ed teacher.

It really burns me up to see teams with teams of engineers who don't let the students even touch the robot, let alone carry it to the field or make repairs. There's no FIRST spirit in that.

On team 668, a couple of the parents like to do alot of the designing. There are only 1 or 2 students who help with that. :( Another couple of them like to help us build and machine parts, and there is a core of about 5-8 students who do alot of the building. I've noticed tho, that most of the girls take part in chairmans or animation. Personally, I'd like to see more girls who really get into building, and actually help with the bot, instead of just me and one or two other females. well, more *students*...

our team...
 

Well our team, has no engineers. At times it gets difficult but we can honestly say we the students built it. All the designing and fabrication is done by us. We have 2 adults who help us, one is a physics teacher and the other is a technical director. We consult them if our ideas are within the bounds of this physical universe. The answer is always- everything is possible. We are lucky to have a mill and a lathe in our school, and the surrounding lab is where the robot is forged, so that's where all the work is done. Other teams make use of our equipment. We've helped 3 rookie teams in fabrication and we ourselves are a rookie team. Our team has to be very resourceful, as we are a low budget team with no sponsor. (We were entered by our school board) At the end of the day, we're on a different playing field than a team who has a robot built by engineers. So, why can't we be a little louder?

We have an interesting group dynamic happening at 810. . . it's unusual, and perhaps even a bit inefficient. But, it's everyone's first time in their respective positions, so it's to be expected.

Concept development was done primarily by the students, with a bit of input and guidance from the mentors - since we have the benefit of having experienced several competitions and understand some of the more common - or easier ways of doing things.

I am entirely responsible for the design of the entire machine. I take the rough sketches and ideas that the team has developed and turn them into something that's workable - within our limited budget and manufacturing ability. As such, I'm also in charge of deciding what we order and such. It's actually quite a bit more responsibility than I wanted - but if this is what it takes to make sure the kids have something they can be proud of, that's fine with me.

Fabrication of intricately machined parts is done by a third party (we think...we've yet to actually find this third party). . .

Assembly of the robot is done entirely by the students, though. I hardly lay a finger on the thing. I'm probably a bit of a nuisance to them, incessantly reminding them to be neat and think of everything that's going on before they move forward - but they're learning.

There are some parents who are heavily involved as well, either by talking about design issues with me, or by getting a hand in on the building and showing the kids some tips and tricks.

My hat is off to you team 907. We learned first hand lastyear about the difficulties of designing and building a working robot with absolutely no outside help.

Our school is lucky enough to have a machine shop we can build our robot in. Every part on our robot is designed, cut, bolted, welded, and programmed by students. We have a CAD teacher, electronics teacher, and machine shop teacher (who doesnt even work at the school anymore) working with us after school. Their function is mainly to answer questions we have. I dont see the point in participating in FIRST if your mentors are the ones doing the work.

We build the robot at our sponsor (Ethicon) and we have almost a full size field. As to who builds it. it is about 50/50 even when the students do not build the parts of the robot they learn how to and gain knowledge by watching an experienced engineer or machinist cut something or make something....

Brian Team 56

We do
 

We build our robot and are proud of it. We have engineers over see but not realy manuacture.

Our team (639) was sponsored by Borgwarner and Cornell, but we did all the work.

WE did have help on a few things like Cnc machining, but we did all the design and production.

This year was kind of hard for my team because during the summer our main sponsor Cordis decided to stopped funding us and find a new school. We had to run around and pull enough money together to enter regionals, nationals, and build a robot.

We also got lucky and found the Knottsco www.knottsco.com (You can see a picture of our robot here with our second place trophy :-) which was willing to give us all the 80/20 and pneumatics we could use and Thermoplastic Processes which loaned us the use of their machine shop.

Another effect of that was the total lack of engineers - machinists. We had one physics teacher, one electronics teacher, and one machinist who assisted us. I'm proud to say however that our robot was designed and built 95% by students on manual machines. You will not see an engineer working on the robot in the pits because there are none. I do not get annoyed when I see robots that are clearly built by professionals because it gives me all the more satisfaction when i go up against those bots and i show that I can do just as well if not better.