Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Van
To me, this brings up the question of awards. Many awards are given for specific design features (Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology", GM Industrial Design, Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control, Motorola Quality, etc.). How are Judges to evaluate teams that have designed and developed part of a robot (say a drive train) in 6 weeks (and field a complete 'bot via collaboration) with a team who have designed and fabricated a complete robot by themselves?
I know that FIRST is not fair, but it is "borrowing a page from sports" and is a "competition" with numerous rules to keep something of a level playing field for our "superbowl of smarts". I also understand that teams that collaborate are perhaps giving members a closer example of what "real-world" engineering is like with multiple companies working on a single project. Still, I believe there is a fundamental question to look at here: How does collaboration (as described by Doug) effect the competition aspect of FIRST?
-Mr. Van
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If I were 1902 (which I'm not, and thus can't speak for), I'd just ask the judges not to consider their drivetrain for any technical awards, similar to a team that's already won Rookie All-Star at one event telling the judges at their next one that they don't want to win again. Doesn't seem like a particularly big deal.