PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to announce a panel discussion that I'm facilitating in Atlanta as part of the 2010 FIRST Robotics Conferences.

The Panel Discussion is titled Decision Making and Compromise During a Design Process.

It will be held on Wednesday April 14th from 7:15PM until 8:45PM.

Abstract:
We have quite the all-star group of participants sitting in on the round-table discussion:
John Novak - FRC16
Andy Baker - FRC45
Ken Patton - FRC51
Paul Copioli - FRC217 + FRC148
Dan Larochelle - FRC40
Raul Olivera - FRC111
Lucien Junkin - FRC118
Chris Fultz - FRC234
Karthik Kanagasabapathy - FRC1114

I'm sure the discussion will be exciting. This is a topic not often talked about in FIRST but one we all deal with each season. I know I'm excited to hear the opinions of each of these incredible mentors.

Hopefully I'll see some of you on Wednesday night in Atlanta!

Regards,
John

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

I'll probably make it just in time like I did last year, but just in case, will the conferences all be recorded?

Awesome stuff, I look forward to learning even more from you all. Thanks for continuing to do this.

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

Heh. Just fresh in my mind is the toughest season I've had; while I feel my decisions were logical and quantitative, it's been a very long and tiring process in defending them. All in all, we've had the best robot we've ever had (and subsequently, the least-awarded, heh) yet I still feel this season is best. I will be there, if only with the hope to figure out how to make future seasons easier.

Additional question -- will this apply mainly to competition robots, or also to general real-world scenarios where there are engineers in the room with more experience and knowledge than a lower level engineer can even fathom?

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

I don't know how I missed this last year! I cannot wait to attend and hope that the advice given will benefit many build seasons to come.

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

This would be a very beneficial event for me or anyone on my team or any team to listen in on. Thanks for setting this up!

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

I can't come but looking forward to seeing the video of the presentation.

Who do I send my $10 to for the FIRST poster with all ten autographs? That's what I really want, talk about keepsakes! If you run out of posters, I'll take a hat.

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

Sweet.

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

I'm definitely going to try to make this one. Decision making seems to be our weakest point during the crucial periods of build, hopefully It doesn't have to be this way much longer.

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

Yes, please someone record or video tape this. Many people who could benefit from this will not be able to make it down to Championships this year. (Me being one of them)

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

You really ought to have two members from each team. Y'know, just to watch the theory in action...

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

I'll have my zi8 and microphone set up... of course i'll need permission from the panel and FIRST to share the video

I had considered going to the Hawks/Cavs game across the street if there wasn't anything good at the conference Wednesday night.

Josh Smith and LeBron James can wait for an hour.

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

I think they are going to need a talking stick.

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

Just a friendly reminder that the deadline to purchase passes to this and the other great FIRST Robotics Conference sessions is this Friday!!

Visit http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/....aspx?id=11300 and click on the FIRST Robotics Conference Registration System link!

You can also access the schedule that page, and see more of the great topics and presenters signed up to share their expertise and knowledge with you!

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

I just found out we will have a special "surprise guest" joining the panel.

This is an EXTREMELY exciting development for me. I know some people will be working on their robots Wednesday night, but if you're free you should definitely come check out this seminar.

Trust me, this is going to be very cool.

-John

Re: PANEL: Decision Making & Compromise During a Design Process
 

The past two years the conference has been recorded and posted online. The presentations from 2009 are at http://thinktank.wpi.edu/tag/47. Previous years are linked athttp://first.wpi.edu/Workshops/index.html.

Hopefully this practice will continue on another year. But surely nothing can beat attending these always informative lectures and discussions in person.

I'm really looking forward to this one, John.