UFH: Bill Gold
 

Thread created automatically to discuss UFH Honoree: Bill Gold.



Name: Bill Gold
Date Honored: 07-31-2005
Years involved w/FIRST: 6
FIRST Team(s): The Sea Dawgs (0258), NASA Ames Research Center &, Bellarmine College Prep (0254)
Role: Fabrication, Mentor
Quote: “Life goes by so fast. You only want to do what you think is right. Close your eyes and it’s past. It’s the story of my life.” –Story of My Life by Social Distortion
Bio: Bill Gold has had an impressive six years in FIRST, serving on teams 254 (Cheesy Poofs) and 258 (The Sea Dawgs) in a number of different roles and positions. Bill sums up his beginnings in FIRST to us as "the son of two practicing attorneys (of which one had been an Electrical Engineer for a short period of time before turning to law). Throughout school I enjoyed learning about math and science, sadly, due to the shortcomings of the local school districts, this was mostly done outside of school. I never really thought about becoming an engineer; I thought I didn’t have the proper mindset or the intelligence to do that job well. So I joined 258 as a junior in high school to be the team “lawyer” and to help with administrative tasks. Thanks to my family upbringing I seemed to naturally take a leadership role on the team, and began to learn about all aspects of the team. By the end of the build period I had cut / drilled / filed part of almost every part that was on our robot that year. Every year since I’ve taken an active role in strategy, design, fabrication, teaching, and coaching."

Bill has a great number of accomplishments, but he can't chalk them all up to himself. "The things that I’m most proud of in FIRST are things that I didn’t do alone. I owe so many people in and outside of FIRST so much. Some people think that I was the mastermind behind the wonderful designs of 258’s 2002-2004 robots with very little money, but this really isn’t the case. I was lucky to have amazing people like Alex Ko and Roy Nangoy of Applied Materials, along with Mark Whitehouse and my brother Jim to help design, delegate the work on, and build those robots. If any of them hadn’t been present, 258 wouldn’t have been able to compete those years, despite the money I had personally put into the team.

"I’m very proud to have worked with the incredible Ken Leung on off-season projects like workshops, school presentations, and FIRST events; as well as working for him at his Cal Games’.

"I’m proud to have been of service to many FIRST teams from all over the country over the years. I enjoy giving other teams suggestions during the build period and off-season, as well as helping others with their strategizing, fundraising, designing, and fabricating. It helps everyone evolve when you bounce ideas off of other people or when you work together on revising ideas.

"I’m proud that, through just my FIRST experiences, I was able to intern with the Committee on Science of the House of Representatives last summer, and that I was able to understand many issues integral to the committee better than some people who had worked there for a while. In the same vein, I’m proud that my family and our political connections were able to help rekindle FIRST’s chance at acquiring federal funding.

"I’m proud of the students I’ve mentored who have accomplished so many amazing things in FIRST, and who are now either pursuing engineering degrees, going to pursue an engineering degree, or who are pursuing other degrees in college.

"One of the things that I’m forever thankful to FIRST for is bringing my brother and myself closer. We’ve always been very friendly with each other, but working together on a team and otherwise in FIRST we’ve gained so much more respect for each other than we would have had otherwise. We cherish our time a lot more, and I miss working with him as closely as we had on 258."

Bill also had a brave and touching favorite FIRST memory to share. "It’s hard to come up with a favorite FIRST memory. I’ve been really lucky with my experiences on teams, volunteering, and working to promote FIRST. I’d probably have to say that one of my favorite FIRST memories took place at the then 2000 Western Regional (later renamed the Silicon Valley Regional). Before my first FIRST event I had felt like an outsider, without much potential for my future. I hated school, I skipped school, and I did extremely poorly in school. It was there where I became totally hooked on FIRST as a competition and its ideals. I was totally blown away at the A/V setup, the competition, and the people in general. I was expecting the normal tradeshow mixed with the inwardly focused teams that you see in sports events, but what I found was more awing than any hockey event I had ever participated in. What’s more is that I found an incredible camaraderie between almost all of the participants (students, teachers, parents, engineers, etc) that I had thought I could never be a part of. It has really been a startling turn of events for me to be accepted by most and respected / looked up to by anyone, period. I was just lucky enough to be exposed to what I believe is one of the most worthwhile causes on the planet, which also happens to be something I love to be a part of. Another great memory I have is of writing my first letter of recommendation for a student as their robotics coach back in 2003. It was a bizarre yet very touching feeling for me to be asked for a letter of recommendation, being just a college student myself."

Lastly, Bill gave us a bit of advice. "FIRST is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It can be a teaching tool, a learning experience, a sporting event, a networking tool, a way to challenge yourself, and any number of combinations of these things. It’s really hard to give advice to other members of FIRST since there are so many different personalities in this program. All I can say is echo statements made by so many other people, that our participation in this program and our volunteering efforts are very worthwhile not just for ourselves but for the entire community and if we play our cards right for the country and the world. I guess what I would suggest is that people (if they aren’t doing this already) try to get to know as many people as possible in this program. There is a wealth of very intelligent and extremely nice people who participate in this program. I could list names of examples of these people until the cows come home, but I think it’d be a better learning experience and networking exercise if everyone tried to find them on their own."

Congratulations to Bill Gold for being our next Unsung FIRST Hero.

Nominated By:

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congratulations to Bill Gold for being honored as our next Unsung FIRST Hero.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congrats Mr. Bill Gold, now your in the elite of the elite in FIRST. WAT TO GO!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

From my first interaction with Bill he has always been a great help to me. He's always around to answer technical questions, bounce ideas off of, or to keep me sane. He's incredibly dedicated to all things FIRST, especially his students. Plus, he's a hockey fanatic, so that gives him a couple of gold stars in my book.

Congratulations Bill on a well deserved honour!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Go Bill.

Now I feel like the kid who liked the popular band way before they became popular.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Go Bill! Congrats, you deserve it man!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congrats to another deserving mentor in FIRST.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congratulations Bill

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Bill loves hockey? Now that's worthy of congratulation.

(And as for this UFH thing, that's well-deserved too!)

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Awesome someone I know personally made it. Congratulations.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Wow! It is about time, but I guess the whole point is that he was an "unsung" hero. But not anymore!

There are just so many good things to say about this guy - too many to list. He is VERY deserving of this honor. Congratulations Bill!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Bill!! Congrats!! I knew it was only time before someone realized all the wonderful things you have done for FIRST. I still remember the wonderful time we had at my last time at Nats...ermm..Championships (I wonder if I'll ever get that right). I am so proud of you! You are awesome! Go you!

*hugs*

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congrats :-D You deserve it well and more.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

I have never met Bill in person, but I have seen a lot of his posts around here. A lot of them which helped me learn few things. Thank you Bill.

You definitely deserve the honor. Congratulation. :)

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congrats Bill!!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congratulations Bill! You have come a long way since the first time we met and well deserving of the UFH.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Bill's always around to help out around here in the wee hours of the morning (late night, west coast). Thank you for everything you do for ChiefDelphi.com, Bill.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

At last, somebody whom I have actually met gets UFH (first time since Al I think). I first met Bill Gold at the Southern California regional this year when I was doing real time scoring. I was aware of everything he has done for his teams (258 and now 254) and what he has done for FIRST in general. He is a pleasure to talk to (even though all we talked about was robotics :D ). We did speak again at the championships. Hopefully we can speak again :)

Congratulations Bill!

-Daniel

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

I'm on vacation this week, and I logged on to check my email and such and saw Bill's picture on the portal. Booya Bill!!!

I've had the privilege of knowing Bill for about 4 years now, and he's one of the hardest working people I've ever seen. He's also an awesome person, and this honor has been a long time coming.

Congrats, you're the man.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congrats, Bill!! :D

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Bill deserves this award! He works very hard and he is also extremely nice…Congratulations Bill!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Way to go Bill, you deserve it!


GO 1403!!!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

I had the pleasure of meeting Bill for the first time at the 2005 SoCal regional. I'd heard lots about Bill from Karthik, and was assured that as the only team from Canada, we could count on Bill if we ever needed help while in SoCal.

On his own accord, he provided us with information about other teams, strategy and scouting info, and even differences in the style of play at the regional - especially compared to what we had witnessed the weekend before in Waterloo. It didn't take me long to realize that Bill was the real deal, and everything and more than what Karthik had told me.

Thank for all your help in SoCal Bill! You may not remember, but we appreciated all the ways you helped us out!

-SlimBoJones...

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Hey Bill, you’ve finally made it to the front page! Good job buddy!

Looking at Bill getting the UFH award makes me think back to the good old times when the two of us were just fresh out of high school and barely started digging the surface of the FIRST craze, visiting the chief delphi forum in its earliest form, and looking up to big names like Joe Johnson, Andy Baker, Bill Beatty, Chris Hibner, and the younger ones like Kate Leach, Andy Grady, and Nate Smith.

Now Bill is one of the heroes of the younger, newer generation of FIRST-a-holics! Boy, time sure fly really fast!

As I say in many of my messages, everyone is who they are because of the steps they took. There is no magic there. So, allow me to take you back in time and show you all the steps Bill has taken that lead him to where he is today (that and give me a chance to embarrass Bill a little bit ;-) ).

2000 : During the second year of NASA Ames regional (Ames was the first west coast regional ever held), Bill was part of a very young team, team 258 Sea Dawgs of Lincoln High School, experiencing the competition for the first time. Little did he knew how much trouble he’s going to get into by joining this “robotics team” of his high school.

2001 : I met Bill for the first time in the Rambots chat room (good old Anton’s chatroom) to talk about a webcast with a few other people, and met him at the LA regional with 258’s impressive big ball robot. We quickly became good friends, both being younger guys around all these cool people and so overwhelmed by the experience. At that point we were just starting to be introduced to the bigger community of all the bay area teams. Little did he knew how much trouble he’s going to get into by being my friend ;-).

Later that year we worked together at Cal Games 2001 being volunteers (that’s when we tried unsuccessfully at 6am in the morning to open a can of coffee with a Swiss-army-knife and proceeded to try to smash it open with a wrench for car tires.) Bill gave me a lot of rides to and from the competitions.

2002 : That was year with the worst luck at LA regional (Bill and I were volunteers) when a series of events lead to our car breaking down at LA and getting stuck for a day. Bill had to stay around another day and load the playing field into the truck with Jim and Ken Krieger. It was the worst but most interesting regionals we’ve ever had.

Bill started teaching robot design at the WRRF workshops that year, and became one of the WRRF board as the assistant for organizing workshops. Again, Bill gave me lots of rides to and from the competitions as I still didn’t know how to drive.

2003 : The summer before 2003, Bill worked with Mike of Wildstang over the internet on the swerve drive that will eventually be built for the 03 competition. It was one of the first professional level designs he has done, and that drive system came off beautifully at the 03 game. Over night Bill became one of the best robot builders of the bay area.

We traveled to the LA regional yet again, and to the first non-Disney Nationals at Houston. Those were some of the most interesting experiences as volunteers of FIRST events. We learned a lot about running the events and met a lot of very cool FIRST people all over the nation.

Later that year Bill and I and John Lawton worked together on the motor/drive train workshops for the WRRF workshops, after swearing the previous year we were never going to do it ever again. Also, at that point, Bill gave me so many rides to and from competition that I actually started to consider getting a driver’s license.

2004 : Bill took on the responsibility of running team 258 and designing their robot for the 04 competition as well. I was in awe of the tremendous responsibility he had to handle as a college student. I could tell it was a very stressful job, but again and again Bill gave everything he got and showed a lot of passion for this program.

That was the year when Bill helped me out tremendously for Cal Games, and the both of us took on the responsibility of workshop organizers in the fall. By then I was so tired of asking for rides that I finally got my own driver’s license.

2005 : Team 258 finally died, and Bill became a mentor on team 254 because of his incredible machining and design capability, and that’s the Bill Gold you see today winning the UFH award.


So, there you are. Bill and I shared a lot of the past 6 years’ FIRST experience; we shared a lot of good times as well as the bad times of struggling to grow up in this community. It was some of the best and most important years I’ve ever had, and Bill was always there to help me out when I needed a hand. I am proud to say Bill is one of the best friends I have in FIRST.

Congratulation on this award, Bill! You are famous, buddy! You are now one of the heroes of FIRST!

Good job, and thanks for all the rides ;-) !

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congratulations Bill! You deserve it!

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Congratulations Bill!! Well deserved. Every activity and relationship you touch has benefited by your involvement.

Ceal

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

Thank you all so much for your kind words. I really don't know what to say, other than that. I'm looking forward to many more years of participation in this worthwhile cause. I'm very thankful that I've met so many great people and had so many great experiences in this program. Thanks to all of you for being here.

Re: UFH: Bill Gold
 

It is great to see Bill recognized like this. He deserves it greatly. Bill has the ability that every good mentor needs: he listens to people.

Bill has been an asset to FIRST since he was a student. He has shown other students how to be team leaders and he has made a (mostly) smooth transition from student to mentor. From what I hear of peers his age, this can be incredibly hard.

I am proud to have Bill as a friend since 2001, and for many years to come.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker