[Joseph F]

Our robot (StART team 506) is built almost entirely by students. I'd say 90-95% of it is student built and about 97% student designed with occasional engineer modification suggestions.

We are a bit low on both space and resources. We build our robot in a physics classroom in our school. We have to completely clear it out each night for the next days classes and then take everything out again after school to build and work more. Our most presice tool is probably our countertop drillpress.

I admit I would love to have some of the tools that the teams with machine shops have access to, or at least a room to leave stuff out in, but it is interesting to see how much we can do with what we have. Last year (our rookie year) we placed 3rd out of 13 rookies and 17 out of 33 overall.

I know someone mentioned they don't want this post turning into a "spirit of first" type thing but I do feel that competition and winning aside, doing the work with little help from engineers is more enjoyable and more interesting than having a marvelous robot that was almost totally built by engineers. As far as i'm concerened the true objective is to have fun any way possible so long as it does not prohibit or decrease the fun of others involved.