[BlondeNerd]

It seems that most of these posts involve giving rookies a handicap of some sort. I do not think that this is an appropriate way to make the competition fair. Something that I have thought of is adopting a policy similar to that of Odyssey of the Mind. In OM, the mentors are not allowed to touch the product. They handle administrative tasks and guide the process, but cannot build/create the final product. If the judges feel that the coach has had too much of a hand in the process, the team can be disqualified. I realize that something this strict would harm FIRST, but it does not seem right when I see teams at competition with several middle-aged men in the pit working on the bot, while the students serve merely as drivers. A way to make FIRST 'fair' would be to add an award, or introduce a factor into qualifying points, that rewarded teams based on some sort of interview that could show how much the team worked on the robot rather than the adults. Inevitably, some things will require adult help, and the adults wouldn't mentor if they didn't get to play with the bot! But, the point of FIRST is to teach the students something, and a robot completely designed, built, and programmed by professional engineers will be of better quality than one done by students. If no students on the team ever touch the robot, will they learn anything?