Dream Team, the people
 

I love the Dream Alliance thread http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=45783 and it got me thinking. If you could build your own FIRST team from scratch, what would it look like? Mentors, facilities, budget allocation???

To make it interesting, here are the constriants:
1. Six Mentors - four technical, two non-technical
2. Build/Team facilities - What's it look like?
3. Budget limit= $30K/year

My answers...

Mentors: It's impossible not to leave great names off, but...
- four technical - Bill Beatty, Andy Baker, Dan Green, Kevin Watson
- two non-technical: Amanda Morrison, Anne Bergeron

Build/team facility:
I'm partial to the Team 103 configuration. Old habits die hard. In the school, CAD Lab, Shop with some automation/machining capabilities, full practice field, and another lab/room for animation, website, and PR.


Budget limit = $30K/year: This is a real challenging number, but
12K - registration fees - 2 official FRC competitions, 2 offseason
8K - robot build materials and tools
4K - hardware and software upgrades
4K - marketing/pr/display/vex/school curriculum integration/recognition of sponsors, mentors, etc
2K - toward travel
*Individual team members could fundraise to defray individual travel expenses.

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Mentors:
Technical:
1. Dave Lavery
2. JVN
3. Mike Wade (our team's, not the NASA Mike Wade)
4. Elgin Clock ('cause I adore him)
Non-Technical:
1. Jenny Beatty ('cause I miss her, and I wanna work with her foreverrrr)
2. Kathie Kentfield ('cause I love her and miss her)

Work facility: A tech classroom. It's the best that way, I think, though you would probably need to have an engineer machine parts.

Budget Limit: $5,000 in a bank for the next year; $3,000 for the robot; $9,000 for regionals; $3,000 for transportation; rest for either saving or spending on volunteer work and such. ^__^

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Technical Mentors: Andy Baker, Paul Copioli, Steve Kyramarios, Joe Johnson.

Non Technical Mentors: Kathie Kentfield and ????????

facility: shop with machining capabilities, full sized practice field, CAD lab, etc.

Budget:

$16,000 for 3 competitions.

$10,000 for parts/tools.

$4,000 for other miscellaneous costs.

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Technical - Raul Olivera, Joe Johnson, Al Skierk, uh, Skierwike, uh, you know who I mean, and Kevin Watson

Non Technical - Amanda Morrison & Jenny Beatty

Facility - Take our S.P.A.M pit, add a carpeted, high ceiling full size practice field next door, and RUN A STUPID T1 LINE TO IT!

Budget - $12k for 2 comps
$8k for robot and tools
$2K for Lego League Support
$8k for travel subsidy - no student should stay home because of financial reasons

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

I'm not so sure about the people... but when we (team 555) went down to Brazil team 393 showed us their robotics house. Basically its a house where they all go during build season, since they build during their summer break. Theres a work area downstairs and computers upstairs. It even has a little soccer field outside. I've been dreaming of a robot house ever since!

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Gah now I want one just scratch that soccer field and replace it with a test field. Yeah... Hmm gives me an educational reality show idea (heh kind of an oxymoron)

Real World : FIRST Robotics
Find out what happens when people stop pretending and start being real. When tiny dry erase board discussions break out into all out mental brawls.

“I sincerely feel that going in that direction will not result in what we wish to accomplish.” “Gaze upon this spreadsheet. This shows all the advantages of treads rather than wheels.” “While your spreadsheet analysis persuaded me of your opinion I still feel we should stick to what works. Also you have been known in the past to put fallacious info in you spreadsheets.” “Come now that was a rather long time past you cannot still use that against me. Yet I don’t see your proof of how wheels are better than treads.” “Well then you want to talk statistics!” “Yes!” “Well then as compared to robots that…”

14 hours, 4 CAD Drawings, 8 simulations later… “So it’s settled we shall use...”

On next weeks episode see what happens when we near the final week!

Yes I realize they don’t actually live in that house.

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

- four technical - Ken Patton, Andy Baker, Chris Carnivale, Raul Olivera
- two non-technical: Amanda Morrison and Jenny Beatty

Build/team facility:
Something similar to TechnoKatz. A full practice field, storage for old robots, a full machine shop (4 lathes, 2 mills, 2 large CNCs, a laser cutter, drill presses, band saws, etc.) a CAD lab.


Budget limit = $30K/year:
12K - registration fees - 2 official FRC competitions, 2 offseason
8K - robot build materials and tools
3K - hardware and software upgrades
2K - marketing/pr/display/vex/school curriculum integration/recognition of sponsors, mentors, etc
5K - toward travel

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

technical mentors: Dan Ward, Randy Lamb (California Love!), Mike Copioli, JTosh
non-technical mentors: Libby Ritchie, Marci Cochran

Build/Team facility: How could you resist a "robot house"? Except ours would be called a "Robot Half-Way House" because we would take broken robots and re-build them ... on the off-season of course. The soccer field would be an all purpose field though for American or Australian rules football.

Budget limit = $30K/year:
16K - registration fees - 2 FRC Regionals + 1 Nats, 2 off season (IRI + Beantown)
8K - robot build materials and tools
2k - hardware and software upgrades
3k - VEX/school curriculum integration/marketing/pr/display/recognition of sponsors, mentors, etc

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Tech mentors I just don't know that many from around FIRST, so I can't really choose other than the ones on team 85. For the Non-Tech I would choose two from 85, Hilda Westrate and Mark Pierce. They do so much for our team. Mark does a lot for us. He is our team programmer, helps out on Chairmans, and gets kids involved with either the robot or programming.

For the place, I know I'm sounding biased but, It would be the Zeeland High School, team 85's home. I would have to change somethings, like we need more room for our stuff, and having room for past robots would be awesome.

Money would be like so:
16k 3 competitions - Two Regionals and Nationals
7k for robot materials
3k for Lego League
4k for random stuff

Really this can be difficult to choose. Who do you put in and who's out. What type of facility is better, High School shop or Sponsors shop, and there are so many things for the budget.

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

4 Technical Mentors - Bill Beaty, JVN, Andy Baker, Paul Copioli
2 non - technical Mentors - Amanda Morrison and Kathie Kentfield

I'd have to stick to Clarkson set up of things, just with the addition of a full practice field somewhere on Clarkson's Campus.

$16,000 - 2 Regionals & The Championship
$8,000 - Build Season neccesities.
$3,000 - FIRST Integration into schools
$3,000 - Tools

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

The thread is very timely. We had a running gag at the Chesapeake Regional that I was starting a new team and everyone had to reapply for their jobs. I told the kids and coaches I was only looking for the best in FIRST. Every time I saw someone good from another team I would ask them if they wanted to join my new team. :D

But the reality is that I already have two of the best mentors that ever worked for FIRST Dina Campagna and Jim Haine. These people are pure genius. For the past 7 years they have quietly gone about the task of making our team one of the best places for students to learn and grow.

They don't get recognized or post on Delphi and you won't find them on anyone's list of Who's Who in FIRST. But have no doubt that they are the architects of one of the most successful programs in FIRST. I am embarassed to say that I receive 99% of the credit for their 7 years of work.

So I guess I better stick with them. :)

Oh yeah and Kressly... If you ever decide to jump ship, I guess I might take you too. ;)

But seriously, I think there is a Dina or Jim on many FIRST teams and all those famous mentors better call them right now and tell them how great they are!!!

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Ah another one of those dream about what you probably wont get threads...

what the heck!
A 1:2 Mentor:Student ratio
A dedicated student body
24 rendering workstations, 3 servers, and 6 CNC machines :D
Any tool imaginable
an up-to-date machine/robotics shop
A vex league for junior high/freshman year, and an FLL for the elementaries.
hmm... lets see. a budget that could cover all of our needs.
---
Dream on! Dream on! Dream until your dreams come true!

--ss32

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Mentors:
Stu Bloom, Scott Ritchie, David Kelly, Josh Hambright, Andy, Baker, Chris Fultz, Marci Cochran, The Ladies from Team 71 (you know who you are!!)

Facilities:
Large work space with high ceilings, lots of equipment, a playing field area, a computer lab full of software, and a lounge for homework and sleep, if needed! AND...it would be awesome to have a full-service cafe with free food/drinks provided for all on our team.

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

I'd keep my team. We're proud of our 100% student designed and built ideal.

The only thing that I would change is adding a garunteed budget each year. (we're a little tight every time...)

Also, a little bit more space. We could have bought a CNC mill for 5k, but we didn't have the workspace :(

Re: Dream Team, the people
 

Gary,
When in doubt, Big Al also works for me.