[Chris Fultz]

FIRST is so much more than building a robot, and I think small errors and problems do more to prepare you for the 'real world' than handing you a perfect kit of parts with all of the drawings complete and every possible question answered.

If you enter almost any field of engineering, you will quickly find that you will not get a complete set of requirements from your customer the first time around (if ever). You will not get all of the answers you want. You will make some assumptions and then later find out you were wrong. You will have to work to rules and restrictions that you do not understand or agree with. You will have rules that require you to interpret and make the right decision for you or your company.

To me, all of these "problems" add to the value of FIRST. They make it real - because the real world of engineering is far from perfect.

The only thing that FIRST could do to make this program even more realistic is to introduce a totally new restriction or rule change about week four - sort of like a new law or regulatory mandate that suddenly changes the way business has to operate because often these changes happen just that fast.