[Ed Crammond]

I think one of the results of having such a competition with so many teams is that you will get loads of different approaches to the task.

Engineers are allowed on the teams and each team will have a slightly different idea of what they are for. Each team will also have a different idea of what they want to get out of the competition.

If a team decides that they want all their students to learn good design techniques then in theory there should be no problem with engineers building it, providing that they are working to the students designs and the students have learnt something. This isnt what our team did, but perhaps there is a team who did, and thats all good. We should be celebrating the diversity of the teams, thats part of what FIRST's about.

Its right that "you get out what you put in" although this doesnt have to be limited to the construction end of the project. On our team last year, those doing the animation and chairman's award had just as much fun as those who physically built the robot.

Big Mike's right, this topic will keep reappearing, especially as the games get harder and the robots more complex. However i think everyone would do well just to concentrate on what their team's goals are and not worrying about anyone else.