why think that way when you can learn from them?
FIRST have many many meanings to people. Some think it means staying up all night to finish the robot... some believe it’s giving lectures about motors and gear ratio... Others might consider it a great opportunity to get their hands greasy, while yet another group of people use FIRST to get kids interested in college... FIRST have many many meanings to people...
That is why FIRST is so popular, because it allow lots and lots of people across the country to participate in the same competition, yet they don't have to do the same thing as each other, say... SAT's for example.
And different places have different people, which is why there are so many different things teams do. Some just want to build a robot; others might start a class like a normal high school course. Some want to help spread the words around, while others just want to experience the competition to meet other people. And that’s ok. People should do whatever they are interested and believe in. This is what make the competition so special, teams participate in the same competition, yet each and everyone of them are so different in their own way.
“What do you think FIRST is really about?” someone asked… To that question, I can only answer: It’s really about a combination of lots things... You can get a feeling of it by mixing tons of fun, the satisfactory of fully understand how motors work, and the excitement when talking to a random person from across the country in a cool discussion… but that’s as close as I can get with limited English capability.
Talking to people... That's a really big part of my FIRST experience. Getting to met people I never would’ve met by was really important. Realizing I don’t know a lot was really important. Learning to learn from others was really important. Learning to have a good attitude about things is really important. Learning to have fun and share with other people is really important.
And there are more detailed stuff, like using a hand drill... or working really hard toward an impossible deadline... Sometimes it's reading engineers’ posts or flipping through text to learn about drive train, other times it's going around looking at robots and meeting people… but there are only so much I can tell you before you experience them yourself.
You see, there is no real answer anyone can tell you, because you have got to look for them yourself. We show you the door; you walk through it and see what kind of world it is. Quoting the policy of FIRST can’t show you what it really looks like; neither can this forum fully describe the whole experience.
Someone said it is unfair that teams have engineers and lots of resources to build the robot for them. Well, why such an attitude and angle? When I look at those super cool looking robots, I knew there is no way I can build a robot as cool as theirs, but nothing is stopping me from trying. Here is what I think: For every bit of knowledge those engineers know more than I do, I know I can learn it by asking more questions… For every cool parts they machined for their robot, I know I can reverse engineer that technology and adapt to my robot, or attack the problem at a different angle and build a device within my own resources, and still be as effective in the game… For ever dollar those teams have more, I know I can try harder to get companies and people interested to help support us… So, I don’t really see this as unfairness, but rather, a higher bar out there for me to reach. There is nothing stopping me, and there is nothing stopping you to improve yourself in every ways those teams are superior in. And get this: with that kind of believe, you already have a spirit as much as theirs, maybe even more.
I know teams without engineers and resources who are just as competitive. I know engineers teams with students as brilliant and inspired as any other teams. Why not learn from both of them? Why spend the time staring at robots and say “that’s not right of them”, instead of working hard to show them that you too can be as competitive? This is why FIRST is a competition. You challenge yourself with goals and compete against others, so you can get better and better. The only thing this competition isn’t about is beating and defeating other teams.
Those “engineers’ teams” are inspirations to students and other teams around them. By raising the bar higher and higher, they challenges teams around them to be more and more competitive and build a robot better and better. Mean while, these teams are the ones walk the difficult road ahead of us, do testing on different new ideas and technology… They are the ones who can teach us how things really work, and how to develop new technologies on your robot. Look around you. In case you haven’t noticed. They are the ones teaching others about motors and programming, and show blue prints of gear shifter and explaining the theory of Continuous Variable Transmission…
FIRST wouldn’t be the same without those teams, that’s a sure thing I can tell you. They are the ones who spend time organizing local competitions, and go to team forums to help FIRST improve the competition. Someone told me, “Their robot is built by engineers, so I am not going to respect them.” Well, in my opinion, as long as they are in the competition, they will continue to help the competition and FIRST grow, and continue to be teachers for us all… I have great respects for them because of that.
Sure, their robot have higher chances of winning awards… But without them, other teams would never push themselves as far AND as hard as they have today. As long as these robots are as cool as they look, teams around them will try to better themselves and catch up (or at least I hope so).
I used to think winning is really important. After a while, I looked back at the times I work so hard to win, and saw how much I gained, even though none of them are awards. Now, I am in for the competition, and the challenges, and all those other good stuff that come along… As for awards... it’s nice to show off with one of them, but I have just as much fun cheering at other teams for winning awards they well deserve, and I can’t stress enough how true that is to many others. Why emphasis so much about awards and titles while you can gain so much more by doing other things at the competition?
People are entitled to their own opinion, so I am going to leave it up to you to decide how you like to think of those teams. If you don’t respect them for their robots and knowledge/experience, at least acknowledge things that they did to the FIRST community…
Either way, I wish you all a fun time at competition, and enjoy as much as possible. Why worry and stress yourself while you can have a great time after all the hard work you did on the robot? Enjoy yourself, and keep an open mind.
|