[angelah]

Last year we had a lot of brand new team members, and almost none of them had the necessary skills to participate meaningfully in build season. We had an eight week training in the fall, from late October to mid-December, right after recruitment and off-season events were over. We had two outside instructors in (for CAD and for C++) and used mentors and our team captains for the rest of the instruction. The topics were an introduction to engineering and build season, CAD (two weeks), programming, tool use, electrical/pneumatic systems, and then two weeks of a mock kickoff and design process. We meet twice a week, and our first meeting was classroom instruction and our second was hands-on practice. Students went home with links and resources to continue their training if that was the area they liked.

This year, we have been spending time tearing down and rebuilding our 2011 robot with the new students who are joining, so that they can get some hands-on experience. In early November, we will do another formal training like last year.