[Karthik]

Originally Posted by CatchRothy22

I guarantee that the students and kids on these teams didn't build those robots. And building is not simple assembling parts that NiagaraFIRST sent them.

Rothy, what exactly are you basing your guarantee on? Part of the design process is about making educated decisions based on unknown outcomes. What exactly is your "guarantee" based on. I spent the last 6 weeks in the shop with my students, and I can guarantee you this, this robot was built by them. Was it 100% student built? No, that's not how this team operates. We have established a happy medium of student/adult involvement.

NiagaraFIRST is not a company by any means. If it is, I'm going to be complaining, because I know I haven't gotten my pay cheque yet. Here's a description of what NiagaraFIRST is, taken from our 2006 Chairman's submission. (Thanks to Emerald and the Chairman's team for this)

Originally Posted by Team 1114 Chairman's Submission

Team 1114 is a partnership between Governor Simcoe Secondary School, the first school in the Niagara Region to become involved with FIRST, and General Motors Powertrain St. Catharines. The two came together in the fall of 2002 to form Simbotics. The program was a huge success in its first two years, with 90% of graduating team members pursuing higher education in science and technology. Unfortunately, there were thousands of individuals in the Niagara Region who had had no exposure to FIRST and were missing out on all the wonderful benefits and opportunities that the program provides. Team 1114, seeing the potential to inspire, wanted to pass on the joys of FIRST to other Niagara area students. With limited resources, the team knew expansion would be difficult. A creative strategy was needed. From this line of thinking, NiagaraFIRST was born.



NiagaraFIRST is an organization that supports and funds all levels of FIRST teams in the Niagara Region. Founded by Team 1114 Executive Sponsor Stephen Rourke, Director of Engineering for GM St. Catharines, NiagaraFIRST uses creative and collaborative strategies to minimize development, manufacturing, and travel expenses, allowing for smaller allocation of resources to support a greater number of FIRST teams. By uniquely managing mentor support and financial resources, NiagaraFIRST is able to support multiple FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC) teams in the region.



Since the creation of NiagaraFIRST in the summer of 2004, the growth of FIRST in the region has been proceeding at a torrid pace. In the initial year of the organization the number of FRC teams grew from 1 to 3, with the addition of our sister teams at Westlane SS (Team 1503) and Fort Erie SS (Team 1680). At the elementary level, 2 FLL teams were created at our feeder school, Dalewood ES. With NiagaraFIRST now in its second year, we currently stand at 14 FLL teams and a newly created FLL regional in our community. The creation of NiagaraFIRST has it much easier for Team 1114 to spread the word of FIRST. This was most obvious with the vast increase of students exposed to FIRST. Opportunities to participate in the FIRST experience were made available for more than 300 Niagara area students – an increase by a factor of 10 in the Niagara Region student participation in FIRST.

You see, the reason we collaborate is not to build a better robot. Trust me, we'd be better off build a single bot. The reason we collaborate, is because it's the most efficient way to get more students exposed to FIRST. We simply don't have the resources, sponsors and mentors to support 3 seperate FRC teams in our area. This is where NiagaraFIRST was born. Collaborating gave us the opportunity that bring FIRST to more students, and more communities. Since the creation of NiagaraFIRST, we've exposed our community to the values of FIRST. You may claim that what we've done is against the spirit of FIRST, but I wholeheartedly disagree. As a result of our efforts we've been able to spread the word of FIRST across the Niagara Peninsula. Elementary students across the region are flocking to our high schools, because of FIRST. These kids are the next generation of engineers. You have to remember, we're not here to build robots. We're here to inspire future science and technology heroes. If building three identical robots is the most efficient way to do this, then that's what we're going to do.

Originally Posted by CatchRothy22

What if one of these robots gets top 8, and they get to pick alliance. Odds are they're going to pick the same design'd robot if it's capiable of getting in top 8. This is just creating an unfair advantage for your design of winning.

You really need to stop making unfounded assumptions. At last year's Greater Toronto Regional, Team 1114 was the number one seed. Did we pick Team 1503 or 1680? No, we picked Team 1305. In the second round Team 1680 was still available, did we pick them? No, we picked Team 1511. Like I said earlier, if we participated as one team, and built only one robot we would be a much stronger team. By building three seperate robots, we were able to reduce the design phase, and have three times as much opportunity for students to get a hands on impact. (Oh wait, according to you our students don't build anything...)

As for how the details of how this collaboration proceeded. The day after kickoff, a joint brainstorming session was held between all three teams. 75 students got together and hashed out many designs. The mentors then evaluated them for engineering soundness, and together a consensus was achieved. From here, our mentors firmed up the design using their years of engineering experience. Students watched and learned during this process. Once the drawings were complete, each school was assigned various manufacturing tasks. If tasks were beyond our capabilities, local machining sponsors picked up the slack. Once all parts were built, the teams came together in 1114's shop, and the robots were assembled. The entire process illustrated our team's greatest strength, partnership.

I'd like to thank all of the people here who kept calm heads and didn't rush to make assumptions. It happens every year when people publicly make claims that they can't back up. We need to stop letting this happen. No one knows what goes on in someone elses shop. You can make unfounded guesses, but chances are you'll come off looking like a moron. Let's try and avoid that

If anyone as any more questions, feel free to ask.

P.S.

Originally Posted by Chris Sturrock

We are all sponsored by GM, and we all share engineers, but we also have our own sponsors as well.

Actually, only 1114 and 1503 are sponsored by GM. 1680 is sponsored by EDS Canada.