Quote:
Originally Posted by santosh
I cosign this almost fully.
At first, we hear about in first such as how one day it will be a first student to end world poverty, provide clean water to the world, and cure cancer. This implies that lift is not fair and that it is our job to help make it fair by helping others.
You know what is not fair, having mentors design and build robots while kids get "inspired."
Although some call it fair, most of society would call it unfair. Not to compare something as trivial as how well your team's robot does to world wide issues, but you do as well as you do in first many times because of simply what school you go to.
I don't know why people want to silence public discourse on the matter. Yeah, what happened to simbotics sucks and should never happen, but is it that hard to believe?
I'll be the first person to admit that I dislike the idea of mentors fully designing and cading robots and having those mentors/ a shop put it together. I instantly shot down the idea of having that happen to the team that I started and mentor. I couldn't/still can't see how students could have fun and take pride in their robot if they weren't the ones putting in the work for build design and debugging.
I simply cannot see how a student can be inspired when they havent made extensive contributions to their machine. I think inspiration comes from the students seeing what they built and seeing it run and run well, Not seeing an engineer built robot dominate a bunch of other teams. At that point it isn't a high school robotics competition.
Forgive me if you disagree with me and forgive me if thus doesn't make too much sense for I have been up late catching up on school work.
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I'm not going to get into the 100% student vs. 100% mentor built argument in this thread, as it has been rehashed many times on these forums. Your opinion seems very firm, and you are completely entitled to it. Since Team 1114 was mentioned in your post, I do want to talk about our design and build philosophy, to make sure that any misconceptions are dealt with. (A few others have discussed our design process in this thread, an captured it very well, I'm just going to reiterate for emphasis) So following Paul's lead, here's the real story about The Simbots.
Team 1114 has never been and will never be a 100% mentor designed and built team, despite the inaccurate assumptions of many people. Our students work hand in hand with our mentors during the entire design phase of the robot. Whether it be brainstorming discussions, preliminary sketches or actual CAD, the project is done as a team with students working with mentors. In terms of fabrication, many parts are built in house by students in our high school shop (we have a few lathes, two CNC mills, a manual mill, an assortment of drill presses and bandsaws and a variety of hand tools), while more complicated parts are sent out to be manufactured by local or not so local machine shops which sponsor the team. Finally, all assembly is done in house, 95% of which is done by our students, with minimal assistance from mentors. At competitions, all maintenance and repairs are led by the students in the pits, with mentors being called in when needed. The entire project is a collaboration between students, mentors, teachers and sponsors, with all four groups learning from each other. The students on our team come out of their experience being both educated and inspired.
Sometimes I feel like I'm beating a dead horse, as it seems like we have to deal with these allegations on a fairly regular basis, both on these forums and via other communication avenues. If anyone wants to learn more about how Simbotics operates, we have a long standing open invitation for any team to visit our shop and/or practice field during the build season. If you can't make the trip, drop by our pits. Granted, we're a very busy and focused group during competitions, but if someone has a free moment I know they'd be glad to share it with you.
If I seem agitated by people claiming that our robot is designed and built by the mentors, it's because I am. Any claim of that sort, is stripping credit away from the students who worked so hard to build their robot and their team. Think about how you would have felt as a high school student, if you were publicly booed and insulted, while people were saying you couldn't possibly be capable of building your robot. I'm tired of having to prepare, defend and protect our students from this onslaught of negativity. Most importantly, this isn't just about any one team. No team should ever have to deal with this type of negativity, and it happens far too often in FIRST. Not just to powerhouses, and also not just to FRC teams. (Yes, I've seen FLL teams who have been subjected to these types of attitudes and it actually makes me sick to my stomach.) We can do better. We need to do better.