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Unread 28-02-2013, 01:00
makahn64 makahn64 is offline
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Re: Is Bag and Tag Necessary?

6 weeks X 10 hours per week with students = 60 hours total.

Less than one work week where I live. Hardly time for a full engineering cycle (maybe we're just slow in Silicon Valley). Sure, this does not include the extra time mentors spend on our own, but this is the time we have to teach and mentor the kids. I guess if we told our students to forget their homework (who needs AP Calc or Physics anyway), skip sports and other activities we could have them for more time, but we chose not to.

We do a LOT of prep in the off season. But outside the drive base (which may or may not be the same YoY) there is only so much you can really do. And the kids tend to burn out from the build season and are a lot less interested in off-season work since they know what is coming.

So I guess the fact that we have a competition robot in the bag, and a practice robot within 4 hours of being ready run means we don't know how to MAKE SCHEDULES AND STICK TO THEM, huh?

After 25 years of developing products and running teams, I'm pretty well versed as to when proper design does not fit the schedule. Yeah, we made our schedule, but it did not represent good engineering practices by any means. You can't do that in 60 hours.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CalTran View Post
I'm sorry, but this can't possibly be more wrong. Yes, six weeks is a short period. Yes, more time would be wonderful. But where's the challenge in that? If you execute it correctly, six weeks can easily fit the full engineering process. You just have to set deadlines AND STICK TO THEM.
As well, there is no restriction on what you do during off season to solve the "engineering process" problem. There are many things that generally don't change season to season. You know that your robot will have to drive. You know that, given FIRST history, there will be some sort of object to manipulate. So prototype and research whatever you can in the off season, and get an accelerated start when season comes around.

As for your statement "Six is nuts and takes a lot of my personal time", why would 12 weeks take any less time? If anything, I'd expect it would take about double the amount of time...
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