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Unread 23-11-2012, 18:34
Adam.garcia Adam.garcia is offline
Design Mentor
FRC #0004 (Team 4 Element)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Rookie Year: 1997
Location: High Tech LA
Posts: 133
Adam.garcia is just really niceAdam.garcia is just really niceAdam.garcia is just really niceAdam.garcia is just really nice
Senior Design Project Ideas

As a former Alumni and current mentor of Team 4 Element, I am continually brainstorming new ideas to take the robotics program to new heights. While making my daily CD searches, I stumbled across great inspiration.

I was looking at Team MOE's "The MOE Pit" and "MOE University", and thought it to be very interesting that a former student of the team took it upon himself to complete a Senior Design Project. And that started me thinking...

What if every senior on the team (or student looking to become a lead of a department), were to tackle a Senior Design Project each year? This could either be an individual thing or a small group's effort. Then, they would be required to give a summary of their research in the form of a powerpoint/deliverables. The breadth of topics would range from design, to machining, to electronics, to programming. The benefits would be twofold:
  • The student would have experience with exploring a robotics-related field of interest. This will quickly prepare the students for the rigors of university-level research if they choose to do so. They will also become experts in the field of their "research", allowing them to "explore" the different forms of engineering before they are required to denote one while applying to college.
  • The well-being of the team will increase significantly. With each successive wave of students, we will become more knowledgeable as a team.

My question to the CD community is:
  1. Has anybody had experience with implementing this type of idea into their robotics program? If so, please explain how you first implemented this, and how it has sustained.
  2. What are some possible ideas for projects that may seem interesting to work on? I have come up with a few, including:
    * Physics backing up our current design of the 6 Wheel West Coast Drive.
    * Design of a fast and robust elevator system. Also, control loops and sensors might be interesting to model and simulate.
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