[_GP_]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

To put this in perspective, you dont need special equipment to drill hardened steel - you only need special drill bits

I speculate that your mentor knew they had those bits at DEKA, and probabally is not allowed to remove them from the building, or if he did, would have to bring them right back, therefore making two trips

so taking the part with him and drilling it at DEKA only saved him a trip - its not like he used a plasma cutter to fashion news parts for you - it was only a drill press

as for your other concern, DEKA is an acronym for DEan KAmen - its literally his company, and since he is the founder of FIRST, it would be a conflict of interest for him to sponsor his own team - Im sure Dean is closely aware of the new games each year, rules, ideas for how the new game will be played...

how would it look if he sponsored a team and it won a regional, or the championship, or won the chairmans awards

people would think it was all fishy and smelled accordingly

Since Dean started this whole program 13 years ago, and has managed to donate enough time and life-energy to make FIRST an independant self-sustaining entity, I dont think he also needs to sponsor individual teams.

But its not necessarily Kamen himself sponsoring a team if he allows the resources of his company to be used by a team.

And to make a counter point, Dave Lavery is deeply involved in the making of this years game, and he still participates on a team (I believe)