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Re: Big teams
To expand on what Josh said,
Our travel team is limited to ~42 students, for simple practical reasons: That is how many students fit on a standard bus (plus chaperones). One season we hired two buses and tried to travel with all the students. Besides the added expense, it was logistically challenging to keep track of everyone so we've gone back to just one bus. We usually see 35 to 55 students actively participating on the team.
At the build meeting, we generally have students break up into subsystems (drive train, arm, minibot, electronics, etc). Each subsystem group brainstorms ideas then breaks into even smaller groups to prototype the ideas. We try to limit the prototyping group size to no more than 4 students. So it's not unusual to have 2-3 prototypes for each subsystem developing in parallel. All of the build team gathers at the end of the night to give updates on the progress of their prototypes. When a prototype is complete, the students demonstrate the function, list the strengths and weaknesses, answer questions and get feedback from the team. Students are allowed and encouraged to float between subsystems throughout the season.
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