[EricH]

Originally Posted by faust1706

But that's not the point. It's that frc ultimately fails at demonstrating what computer science really is.

That's also not its goal. Plain and simple. FRC is aimed at inspiration. Not at learning the reality. If demonstrating the reality were the goal, the mechanical students (remember, they're all in high school) would all need to be able to do at least basic stress analysis, geartrain stresses, fatigue-rating...

...and know the math behind all that, which can be worse than the math used to compute the various items I just mentioned.

Oh, and the electricals would need to be able to understand the guts of the electrical devices, which as I recall can get into Diff. Eq. As I recall, that's barely touched on in H.S. calculus.



Plain and simple: Part of any (and I do mean ANY) engineering project is to deliver a product that works, on time and on budget (and on weight). Comp Sci is very much an engineering field. If you have the time to go above and beyond, nobody is stopping you from going above and beyond, provided that the product (your code) works (read: runs the robot) properly. I think Randall puts it very nicely in 664...