Quote:
Originally posted by FAKrogoth
However, the real goal is to develop an understanding of the process of design, not how the 'bot works.
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You almost got it, but not quite. The real goal is for students to understand the process of engineering, which is somewhat larger than the process of design. Design is only one aspect.
If you look at most team organizations you will see a list of functions something like this:
Administration
Marketing (to other teams)
Capital Development (fund raising)
Product Development (design)
Product Delivery (fabrication)
Those functions are present in some form in every successful business. If you take one of them away, the whole thing falls apart.
In the same way there is a structure to the engineering process. As a team, the BeachBots follow that structure rigorously. It goes something like this :
-Decide how to accomplish the task (how do you play the game?)
-Develop requirements for accomplishing the task (how fast do you have to move to play effectively?)
-Decide how to meet requirements (what motor do I use to lift 7 boxes 1 ft in 1 sec?)
-Figure out how to make it work (design, the more detailed the better)
-Build it
-Test it (determine if you meet requirements, BTW if you meet requirements, you win, no matter your competition score)
-Deliver it (show up at a competition)
-Evaluate performance (Figure out where we screwed up both technically and organizationally. Note: the later is more important)
-Research and Development (correct techncal issues for next time)
-Repeat (Next year already?)
This process is not something that people naturally follow. But it is the key to a sustained successful engineering enterprise. We have engineers from four top aerospace firms (well it was 4, one just bought one of the other 3). You know what, we all do business the same way, in spite of being in very different markets.
To truly understand the process, you must DO it. A really good FIRST team will model a good engineering business. That is the point, to give you guys a taste of what it is like in the "real world" of engineering. To be good at it, you need practice. That is what your adult mentors can provide. On our team, the mentors have collectively been through this process hundreds of times, we understand it and we use it, because it works.
But having had the chance to observe up close a "students do it all" team, this process is exactly what is missing. It's not the students fault, they've never done it so how could they be expected to do it well? Yes they've tried to follow the steps, but you can tell it is not as easy as breathing for them. For those of us who have been doing it for twenty years it is.
In many ways FIRST is just another program like so many I've worked. But it IS more fun than most.
BTW collin234, if the person who works 52 weeks a year on publicity causes a new team to get started or gets you a new major sponsor, they are of infintely more value than any 6 week machining genius. Pretty strong words from an engineer!