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Originally Posted by skimoose
Don't get me wrong Dave. If mentors didn't get directly involved with building the robot, there wouldn't be nearly as many engineers volunteering to help teams. We have fun building too, and I'm all for being challenged. That's what keeps me coming back each year.  I just like to see the students do as much as they possibly can, and then push them for just a little more. |
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Originally Posted by Mike Shaul
I think that limiting it only to students could hurt FIRST. Some teams have different resources. Some schools don't have any programing classes or students interested in programing.
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Both of these statements worry me. I see not having students interested in programming as a challenge to overcome, not a challenge to circumvent. As a student programmer I find the idea of a mentor doing the programming sickening. I'm decent at programing and I've put much time and effort into doing the best I can. However, I've done this under the assumption that I would be competing with other students not mentors. I believed that my skills would be put to the test based on the skills of other teams not their mentors. This is my first year of FIRST, but I have already put in large amounts of off season time towards the programming side of things. I would hope that my efforts are not in vain because I am competing with adults.
To return to topic I feel that auto should be both longer and more competitive. This year I felt it was simply a matter of unloading ten balls with the greatest accuracy possible and perhaps a small amount of movement. That was all ten seconds allowed. I would like to see 40 seconds or more of auto mode just to incorporate wider aspects of programming. For example a team after unloading its ten balls might have went into a roving pattern to pick up more balls or returned to reloading distance of its team. As a programmer it saddens me to see auto taking up only a small portion of the game.