[thefro526]

As embarrassing as it is to say this, during my Freshman and Sophomore year on 816 (And I would assume the years before), we were one of those teams that looked down on teams that were well funded, had ample resources and built strong machines year in and year out. My first exposure to robotics was Duel on the Delaware 2005 where some of the older team members swore up and down that Team XXX didn't build their robot and things like that.

At the end of the 2007 season, my class (Class of 2009) became the team leaders, and we WANTED to be like those upper tier teams. We knew that we didn't have the resources that they did, but we knew that we could build a robot that was as competitive - it just might not have been as pretty. In 2008 we were the #2 seed at NJ with an 8-0 record.

From that point forward, the attitude on our team shifted and we began to respect those top tier teams, knowing that with enough hard work we could be as good as them. Interestingly enough, I haven't heard one student on our team accuse another team of not building their robot since 2008. (It took a little longer for some of the long-time mentors to break the habit)

I think the way to Change the Culture (or at least get the ball rolling) is to show all teams two things:

1) "Engineer Built" Robots aren't always successful.

2) "Student Built" Robots can compete with, and win against Top-Tier teams - if the "Student Built" team works hard enough.

Personally, I find it offensive that some Students will call any Top Tier robot Engineer built. Just because the robot was made with care, looks professional, and works well, doesn't mean that Students didn't build it.

(On a semi-related note, I envy 1114, 148, 217, 254, 25, 2016, 2056, 111, 1625 etc in the same way that many people envy the best sports teams. I'd love to beat any one of them, and to be perfectly honest it's one of my goals - because if you can beat the best, then you are one of the best.)