Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

When the judges came by to see Top Gun, the only student in the pits was a non-native English speaker who rarely came to build sessions, and had missed the "how to talk about the robot" workshop. Of course. :ahh:


P.S. He's a great kid -- he's just not the one who could put our best foot forward.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

OK, I'm posting two.

I spent a lot of time wandering around asking students about their robots. It is amazing how much teams want to show off their work. I LOVE it.

At one team, the student turned out to be a young (probably 19) mentor. He told me that they had taken the 2-speed shifter off their bot to make weight, but that he had designed and machined it himself. He pulled out a metal container full of transmission parts and showed me how the ball-bearing shifter worked. It was a great moment.

I'll gladly stand in the pits all day hearing students tell me how stuff works. I think they inspire me a lot more than I inspire them.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

I'm going to apply an AED to this thread just once, then I'm giving up.

Scene: Team 1369's pit. They are the Scallywags.

Me: OK gang, let's hear it!
Team: Arrrrr!!!!

I love those people.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

Which team was that? Ball-shifting mechanisms are pretty neat and I'd have loved to take a look at one up close.

I enjoyed watching my team stand in awe of the Poof's mentors for a bit after we'd run into them at Red Robin on Saturday night. That was fun.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

It was Team 114. A really nice bot and a nice group. Another FIRST class act.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

I spent all day Saturday at BAE giving VIP tours - and I firmly believe in taking each tour over to a team and having them demonstrate their robot.

None of my trips into the pits were planned in advance. Some teams were chosen because the VIP wanted to meet them, some just because their robot was still working and they didn't look too frantic. But, I would have not been able to do that had I not trusted that each team would be able to talk about their robot fantastically....and I was never disappointed.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

It is one of the reasons inspecting is so much fun.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

I think you got yer team number messed up. 1369 is Minotaur down in Tampa, FL. Perhaps you meant 1359?

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

If you like the fact that their mentor was young then you would love our team. We have 2 mentors under 20 (I’m 18) and 3 more between 20-25. I think that becoming a mentor is very hard because I was so used to doing everything instead of teaching it then letting the students go off and do it. But it is great to see the students and how proud they are of the machine that they made.

But that was off topic. Normally during competitions I am glad to see that in previous years as a student and driver that when we communicated to our alliance about strategy we were not bombarded by the mentors of that team (although it does happen and we thank them and say we wish to talk with the students). It is great that the entire basis of the competition is focused around students getting involved and I’m glad that the mentors see it that way.

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

Yep. My apologies to the Pirate gang (seeded #1 at PNW, by the way).

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

Last year’s story but I hope you will indulge me.
Some of you in NEMO have heard this story.
Chesapeake Regional 2005: Finals.
Kathie Kentfield from Conn., co-founder of NEMO has her son on one side of the field.
Jenny Beatty from MD., co-founder of NEMO has her son on the opposite alliance.
But that is not the story. The story is this was broadcast by NASA TV.
My son’s 101 year-old great-grandmother is watching from a nursing home in Conn. and for the first time can see what all the robot talk the past few years is about. And her great-grandson is ON TV!
Kathie’s son’s 80+ year-old grandmother is watching from Florida and can see what all the robot talk is about. And her grandson is ON TV!

Re: Great Regional Human Interest Stories
 

We were indeed the team that had to take off our ball shifters to make weight, but the student you talked to who you believe to be a young mentor was probably our lead drive train designer, Craig (known as 114ManualLabor here on CD). Craig was the one who answered any questions from pit wanderers about our gearboxes. He actually did work with last years team captain and current mentor (James114) on the gearboxes, but James did not go to Portland with us, so most likely you talked with Craig.

Thank you for the compliments on our team and our robot. We put almost countless hours into that machine and we our happy that our work paid off.

Mike C.