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Originally Posted by Jared Russell
First, never judge a book by its cover.
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I did not judge the book by the cover. At the Madera regional, my team stayed at the same hotel as Team 254. On Friday night, one of your students interacted with my students and said that being on your team isn't as much fun because of the work done by the mentors. This was told to me the next day and I was surprised by a comment like that about such a highly regarded team. Seeing your CD post this weekend, I decided to investigate for myself.
I had expected that your project was forked and that was why I asked for clarification as to what the students did. Instead, your answer wasn't completely clear to me as to exactly what the students did for CheesyVision. I do understand that it was "mentor heavy." Though you couldn't tell the differences between student and mentor effort when you were in high school, I trust my judgment because I have done programming for 18 years and know the subtle differences in programming skills at all levels. I do think very highly of the work you released to all teams. I am sure students also do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jared Russell
It might be software, but this is just another COTS module that you can choose to use (or ignore). Like an AM Shifter or a VEXpro VersaPlanetary, I believe that putting a high quality component in the hands of a student is a vehicle for inspiration.
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Your analogy to a COTS part is not equivalent to this situation: several mentors appear to have worked exclusively on a project that was used to give a competitive advantage to the game performance given limitations of the Field Management System. Albeit it was not an overwhelming advantage and any team could have done the exact same thing. Again, I am not saying Team 254 has broken any rules. But I find it interesting that a NASA sponsored (funded?) team, and the team with the best winning record of FIRST, needs to have mentors do exactly what you have done for a high school competition. Of course you stand by your decision to do CheesyVision the way that you did -- it's easy to stand by a decision that has no consequences.
I am eminently fortunate to always have mentored teams that were student run and each team has students just as impressive as the ones you described. From what I have learned today, I think the difference between your team and my teams is that other mentors keep it students vs students.
I do not intend for any of my posts to put you on the defensive nor to diminish your students' work hard. I am trained to speak my mind and your reply has been informative. Thank you for answering.