Thread: The Purpose of FIRST
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Unread 23-06-2002, 22:29
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#0047 (ChiefDelphi)
  
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Pontiac, MI
Posts: 21,214
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Re: The Purpose of FIRST
Posted by Kyle Huang.

Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Gunn High School and Sun Microsystems, Nasa/Ames and Xerox PARC.

Posted on 3/21/2000 1:12 AM MST


In Reply to: The Purpose of FIRST posted by colleen on 3/20/2000 10:30 PM MST:



You know, this discussion, or something very much like it comes up every year.
Engineer built vs. Student built robots, and teams as well. This year it just
happened to revolve around Chief Delphi for some reason. There are always
snickering comments about engineer-built robots. Last year, I was a part of these
discussions on this board, screaming in favor of student-built bots. But sometime
between then and now (probably around nationals last year) i realized one thing:
who cares?
It isn't really about who builds the robot... To quote a few wise people,

--------------------------
'inspiring them to stick it out through the Calc 3 class'
'FIRST has (wisely, in my opinion) allowed teams to use their best judgement about what
balance is best to maximize the inspirational aspect of their FIRST programs.'
'It's about the Chairman's Award Stupid!!!!'
--------------------------

It's about who the robot touches and influences. I still do think that student-run teams
have definite strong points, and i think every team should try it at least once. but
its every team's decision on what to do. Each one of the teams in FIRST does not
set out to spite other teams. Nobody will go so far as to show up to nationals with a
completely different robot than what they have been playing with at regionals. The
engineers involved in this competition are not out to destroy the hopes of high school
students by beating them in competition...
GRT has gotten a bad reputation from a lot of teams (almost all on the west coast) for
'playing rough' at the 1999 NASA/Ames regional. We know we don't deserve it, but
what is gracious professionalism about, also? I'm sure individuals may have
opinions like 'chief delphi cheats and has two robots'... but not entire teams. these
individuals don't understand what FIRST is. and if they still don't by the time they
graduate from school and the competition, then I don't really care where they end up
afterwards. If FIRST can't help and inspire someone, what can?
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