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Unread 07-03-2004, 20:49
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_GP_ _GP_ is offline
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AKA: Geoff P
#1277 (Crusaders)
Team Role: Student
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Groton, Massachusetts
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_GP_ will become famous soon enough
Question An ethical question

This year one of our mentors was an engineer for DEKA, the research firm that Dean Kamen runs (responsable for such things as the Segway and IBot). Our team is a rookie tema and one of our biggest hurdles we had to overcome was maling things.. we basically made our robot with a hacksaw and a drill press..

So during the competition we needed to drill a hole through some hardened steel. Needless to say the machine shop at the competition wasn't up to it (they broke a few bits trying). So our mentor and I drove over to DEKA (a few blocks away from the NH regional) and used their shop. It is massive and has millions of dollars of machinery... its undescribable the feeling seeing this place... But it raises the question was he right to hold this resource away from our team. He was worried that since DEKA has such a connection with FIRST it would be wrong to sponsor a team.

I'm just curios about what other people think about this. I totally understand where he is coming from, but even if our team had been given one day a week in that place we could have done so much.

P.S. - our team did great at the NH regional... we placed 14/51 and got all the way to the quarters... partially due to the transmissions the guys at DEKA were able to fix...


I rephrased my question down below
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"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival" -Churchill

2004 NH Rookie Quarter Finalist

Last edited by _GP_ : 07-03-2004 at 22:45.
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