[Dan Richardson]

I like to think FIRST is about inspiration but also about showing students how things are really done. Sometimes letting them have free reign with everything doesn't accomplish this task. I don't nesc. take the stand that it should be 100% Professionally Engineered, but I definitely respect teams who do because they have a great bot each year and students can learn as much from that as they can from doing something on their own.

One common misconception however is that student bots can't compete with professional bots. This is simply not the case, FIRST always makes the goal accomplish able by even the least fortunate of teams. If you can perform your primary function well and have a solid drive train you will always be competitive. My team 1902 was completely designed and built by students ( that includes 3 college mentors ) and we were finalist at the super competitive UCF regional.

FIRST is very unique, but not 100% fair, It was never intended to be. Its intended to inspire, and whatever your team sets up obviously works to inspire your students. We built our robot in my garage and our students were just as inspired as 233 who builds it in the NASA Prototype labs. You cant even compare the two robots mechanically but functionally we could remain competitive. But at the same time I can show my students 233's robot and say look at this machine and how they built it, and they can learn from it.

Unfortunately this competition will never have a completely level playing field, it wouldn't be a competition if it did. However if inspiring students and the community is still the goal, then which ever way your team accomplishes it great for them. If teams lose site of this goal, then maybe there is where the problems begin.