[thefro526]

I've corrected numerous members on my team about this issues too many times to count. I try to explain to them that just because you have a good looking robot it's professionally built. This year we have a decent looking robot and we have 3 mentors and no engineers but, we do have an awesome designer (*cough* me *cough*).

One of the things that I strive for on my team is consistency and improving on idea that already works. I've studied some of the greatest robots ever and I've noticed that many teams build upon what they know. Some examples are: Pink's Telescoping arm, Beachbots Single Jointed arm, 254's and 968's "west coast drive", 25's gear drive, 118's swerve, Wildstang's Swerve and many many more. These teams create a standard mechanism design that can be adapted to nearly any challenge. And it may appear on the outside that these robots are professionally designed, but when you look at the up close you realize they are just cases of using what you know and improving upon it. I'm just saying if you built a *insert cool mechanism here* every year you would look professional too.

I also would like to add that many people who say "Team XXX has engineers build their bot" or "We'd be good if we had a $XX,XXX budget" or "those kids haven't touched their robot" have never even spoken to anyone on these teams. I've noticed with many teams that have a lot of mentors, that the mentors work side by side with the students. So just because the mentors are working on it doesn't mean that the students don't, you can't assume anything until you ask. And yes, there are teams out there who don't see the robot until a few days before ship but, don't assume because someone is good that they have engineers build their 'bot.

And anyways who cares if someone builds a robot for a team. FIRST in itself is about inspiring, and these teams with "Engineer Built Robots", as people like to say, just inspire me to get to their level. And yes, I would like to have $XX,XXX dollars as a budget but, we do fine without it. And I will almost guarantee you that most of these kids on the teams with "Engineer Built Robots" are walking around with smiles and participating. I've found that there is no reason to bash a team better than you because there's no point. IMO, I think that those who say things about other teams without knowing how they run their team and built their robots is UN-GP.