Quote:
Originally Posted by magnets
FRC: FIRST Robotics Competition.
It's a competition. There is no rule that says we cannot have a team of 300 of the brightest engineers build our robot for us. Team 254 inspires students by winning and being better than 99% of everybody else. That's their call to make, and not ours to discuss or criticize.
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Exactly. Every team has a different philosophy on how mentors should be involved; trying to get every team in FRC to utilize their mentors in roughly the same way (or to eliminate some kinds of mentor involvement) is futile. What matters is if the students are being inspired, and winning is pretty inspiring.
Admittedly, I am a strong believer that most design and strategic decisions should be made by the students. However, why underutilize brilliant mentors when they can contribute so much? Why not take advantage of the unique skills offered by mentors experienced in their field? I learned to use PCB design software this year after a mentor designed a circuit for a custom Talon SRX expansion board. Was it mentor-deisgned? Yes. Did a student learn something new? Yes. Mentor involvement in design, and student inspiration aren't mutually exclusive.