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Originally Posted by philso
I would hope that it also means that the students are working closely with people who "know how things can be made" and can guide them away from designs that are not manufacturable.
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Yeah, we're kind of mean about that though.
We may know the answer to a problem right off the bat, but will let a student spend days, if not a week, to come up with the answer on their own. They may require a prod in a general direction every now and then, but the aim really is for it to be their ideas and their robot.
This year we have roughly four mentors in all, not counting the two coaches for the team who work for the school district. We have two mentors who are experienced in electronics and LabView. Another mentor has made a career out of mechanical engineering and I have studied mechanical engineering, but have currently not been employed as such. However, thanks to my experience as both an alumni and a mentor in FRC, I know a few things about building robots.
We also have a few alumni who come in and help, but are otherwise still completing their education.
Generally a student or a group of students will come up with a concept and rough out a design on Inventor. I can't speak for other mentors, but I try to stay out of the picture for this part of the process. After something is modeled, we'll usually sit down and do a quick run down on the purpose, how it should function, etc and lend insight as to any potential problems they may have with complexity, strength, fitment, manufacturability, serviceability, etc.
The students take that feedback and modify the design as needed up until the next review. Ultimately they may go through several designs or iterations before given the thumbs up to manufacture a part. Along the process they may also fabricate rough prototypes to test concepts. They did that this year with the shooter; testing out two 8" pneumatic wheels with CIMs, then two 2.75" hard rubber wheels powered off smaller motors with different speeds, the same two wheels with both at the same speed and finally a three wheel shooter with all at the same speed. All in all I'd say about two weeks was spent testing different configurations and testing consistency as well as distance.
Most of my involvement amounts to helping them with torque, power and physics calculations, concept feasibility and helping them brainstorm through a rut. If a student starts with the program their freshman year, they will typically work their way up to full on design and manufacturing their last year or two in the program. Some students will sign up for after-school classes to learn Inventor. I don't think we have a single mentor on the team who actually knows how to use that program (all of my experience is in ProEngineer).
It continues to impress me just how capable many of these students become. They may enter the program knowing very little about mechanics, design, manufacturing, electronics, programming, management, etc. Ultimately they leave with one heck of a head start over your normal teenager.